sloth unleashed

Artist: Kaballa Date: ca. 1940s-1950s Medium: Oil on paper Size: 37.9 x 51.5 cm (14 15/16 x 20 ¼ in.) Description: “This small painting is by Kaballa, one of the members of the Lubumbashi painting atelier which was a key modernist movement in central Africa. Established by amateur artist-patron Pierre Romain-Desfossés in the late 1940s, the atelier was variously known as “Le Hangar,” the “Elisabethville Indigenous Art Studio” and the Académie des beaux arts and produced a significant body of successful decorative works. Desfossés, like a number of colleagues such as Frank McEwen in Rhodesia and Pierre Lods in Brazzaville, expounded a laissez-faire approach to teaching while simultaneously providing his students with certain palettes and “native” inspirations to pursue their work. Kaballa, and other members of the Lubumbashi school focused their attention on genre scenes of flora and fauna, incorporating the human figure only as part of the larger narrative. This painting seems to present the crocodile from a different perspective. Typically identified as a dangerous predator that lurks in the water, here the animal seems to be a protective parent guarding its unhatched young.” Source: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art

“Types of the reptiles of the old world.” The physical atlas of natural phenomena. 1856. Rumsey. Atlas page inset.

Title: Taweret Amulet Origin: Egypt Date: 664-332 B.C. Medium: Faience Size: H. 5.1 cm (2 in) Description: “Taweret and other closely related goddesses were created from a blending of lion, hippo, crocodile, and human attributes. The three animals were some of the fiercest species found in ancient Egypt and combining their strengths produced a most potent deity and therefore amulet. Taweret’s particular responsibility was the protection of women during pregnancy and childbirth. She is often portrayed leaning on a sa symbol. Her representation was sometimes used on tomb walls or funerary equipment to protect the deceased during rebirth.” Source: http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/545344

Crocodile attack Turkish dime novel cover, Nat Pinkerton Dünyanin en Meşhur Polis Hafiyesi (The World’s Most Famous Detective) No. 151?, circa 1954, “Canavarlar Evi” (The House of Monsters), anonymous.

The Steam Man of the West

From Die Muskete, 1913.

Cuban crocodiles, circa 1838-1857, illustrated in Histoire Physique, Politique et Naturelle de L'ile de Cuba by Ramon de la Sagra (1798-1871).

(New York Public Library)

Illustration of a crocodile from ‘Bilder-Atlas’ by Leopold Joseph Franz Johann Fitzinger (1802-1884). Published 1867.

Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library

Biodiversity Heritage Library

archive.org

Jessica’s babysitting career proved to be rather short-lived.

From: Iconographic encyclopaedia of science, literature and art (1852)

Crocodile in Thailand (by siggibyte)