arthistoryanimalia

[arthistoryanimalia]

It was on this day (21 February) in 1918 that the last known Carolina Parakeet, Incas, died at the Cincinnati Zoo – in the same cage the last known Passenger Pigeon, Martha, had died only four years earlier.

Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis, Linnaeus 1758) preserved specimen in the Field Museum of Natural History collection. [Wikimedia Commons]

Audubon’s illustration of the species in original edition of The Birds of America is perhaps one of his finest works (and definitely my personal favorite!), capturing the boisterous beauty of these colorful and highly social birds as they feast on cocklebur seeds. There is even a juvenile in the mix, its head still green:

"Carolina Parrot" (Conuropsis carolinensis carolinensis subspecies), Plate XXVI in the original edition of The Birds of America (1827-38), engraving by Robert Havell, Jr. after John James Audubon’s original 1825 watercolor painting, hand-colored engraving and aquatint on wove paper. [Wikimedia Commons]

Unfortunately, the plate made for the smaller second edition is much inferior to the original, thinning out both the flock and foliage:

“Carolina Parrot or Parrakeet” (Conuropsis carolinensis carolinensis subspecies), Plate 278 in the first Royal Octavo edition of The Birds of America (1840-4), engraving by J. T. Bowen after J. J. Audubon, hand-colored stone lithograph. [Wikimedia Commons]

Those green-bodied Carolina Parakeets in Audubon’s published plates are the nominate subspecies, Conuropsis carolinensis carolinensis. He also made an unpublished watercolor of the other subspecies, Conuropsis carolinensis ludovicianus, which tended to have a more bluish body and paler yellow head plumage:

“Carolina Parrot” (Conuropsis carolinensis ludovicianus subspecies), unpublished watercolor painting by John James Audubon, 1811. [Wikimedia Commons]

The Carolina Parakeet (aka Carolina Parrot or Carolina Conure) was the northernmost ranging parrot and the only one native to the eastern United States. Audubon warned of their rapidly declining numbers during the early 1800s, describing witnessing large numbers of Carolina Parakeets being killed by landowners angered by their crop raids. The last confirmed wild sightings were in 1910, with unconfirmed sightings persisting into the 1940s; Incas was the last captive bird, and with his passing in 1918 and no further verified living specimens thereafter, the species was officially declared extinct in 1939.

Read more about the demise of the Carolina Parakeet and Audubon's valuable visual records of this now-extinct species on the blog:

[arthistoryanimalia]

The Year of the Snake Slithers in Many Guises in Mary Maka’s Playful Illustrations

[arthistoryanimalia]

#TwoForTuesday + #TilesOnTuesday:

Tile panel with inscription and peacocks

Iran, c.1825

Ceramic, H 20.5 x W 50 in (52.1 x 127 cm)

Asian Art Museum F2008.64.18.a-.b

[arthistoryanimalia]

#TwoForTuesday:

Osuitok Ipeelee (Inuit, 1923 – 2005) Untitled (Walruses), c. 1977 Steatite, caribou antler; 29.2 x 37.2 x 21.9 cm Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal inv. 2014.234.1-4

[arthistoryanimalia]

#TwoForTuesday:

Two Flat Stamps (Snake & Frog)

Atlantic Watershed, Costa Rica, 1st–7th c. CE

Ceramic, H. 1 15/32 x W. 2 3/32 in. (3.7 x 5.3 cm)

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1979.206.1181,.1183

"Ceramic stamps are found in Costa Rican burials, suggesting that their importance extended beyond utilitarian. Much speculation has been made with regard to the material that these stamps were intended to imprint, including paper, textiles, and the human body. The curved shape of the printing surface supports the function of body painting most strongly. This theory is reinforced by the presence of stamp motifs on Costa Rican ceramic figure sculpture. The designs of the stamps can be divided into two categories, those that mimic the geometricity of textile structure and those that do not. The frog stamp, with the angular lines of an amphibian, falls into the category of textile imagery, whereas the more fluid depiction of the serpent is derived from a more naturalistic source."

[arthistoryanimalia]

#TwoForTuesday:

Double-Headed Crocodile Jar Greater Nicoya Culture, Nicaragua, 800-1250 CE Lago modeled clay with slip H 7 3/8in 18.7cm x W 17 1/2in 44.5cm x D 7 3/4in 19.7cm Denver Art Museum 1995.396

[arthistoryanimalia]

#MetalMonday:

Fabergé jeweled gold and silver-mounted charka shaped as a bird

Workmaster's mark of Anna Ringe, St. Petersburg, c. 1896

H 2in. (5.1cm.)

engraved with the Russian inscription 'Christmas Tree, 4 January 1897'

[arthistoryanimalia]

#WorldWhaleDay 🐳:

Carl Walters (USA, 1883–1955) Whale, 1927 Glazed earthenware 19.7 × 42.6 × 19.7 cm (7 3/4 × 16 3/4 × 7 3/4 in.) The Art Institute of Chicago 2022.243

"Carl Walter’s Whale was inspired by the artist’s interest in the arresting blue color of many Egyptian ceramics. The artist recalled, “I just couldn’t get that blue out of my head. I dreamed about it, talked about it, and finally I set out to discover how I could reproduce it.” After years of research and experimentation, Walters landed on a formula and firing technique that satisfied him, using it to create a wild menagerie of animals including this lively whale. Here, Walters used the vibrant glaze as the background to dense aquatic surface decoration, a reference to the leviathan’s oceanic home."

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #WorldWhaleDay 🐳

For #WorldWhaleDay, here is famed English naturalist George Shaw's (1751-1813) illustration of the Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus). You're welcome. 😂

George Shaw, The Naturalist's Miscellany, Vol. 6 (1794-5), Plate 184. Biodiversity Heritage Library

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #WorldWhaleDay 🐳

For #WorldWhaleDay, the medieval bestiary version of a whale:

Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 1511 (The Ashmole Bestiary), folio 86v. England, first quarter 13th century.

"The whale likes to bask at the surface and sometimes stays there long enough for sand to accumulate on its back. Sailors mistake the whale for an island and try to land on it, with disastrous results. Usually the sailors are doing something to the whale (starting a fire on its back, attaching an anchor, etc.) but it this case they are just gesturing enigmatically. The whale is catching fish by open its mouth and emiting a sweet odor, which causes fish to swim right in."

"Allegory/Moral: The whale who deceives sailors and drags them down to their deaths signifies the devil, who deceives those he drags down to hell. Those of weak faith who give in to the sweet odor of worldly desires will be swallowed up by the devil."

- explanation via https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast282.htm

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #WorldWhaleDay 🐳

For #Woodensday:

Kwakwaka'wakw artist Baleen Whale Mask, 19th century Alert Bay, Cormorant Island, British Columbia, Canada Cedarwood, pigment, hide, cotton cord, metal nails From Brooklyn Museum’s “Climate in Crisis: Environmental Change in the Indigenous Americas” exhibition

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #WorldWhaleDay 🐳

Whale Effigy 🐳 Chumash (California, West Coast), c.1200-1600 Steatite, shell inlay, 7.1 x 9.5 cm Montreal Museum of Fine Arts 1950.51.Ab.9

[arthistoryanimalia]

#WorldHippoDay 🦛:

Hippopotamuses by Fabergé, c.1900:

Nephrite & diamond, 2.9 x 5.7 x 2.7 cm RCIN 40289

Agate & rose diamonds, 3.0 x 5.9 x 2.9 cm RCIN 40337

[Royal Collection Trust]

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #WorldPangolinDay

Edward Saidi Tingatinga (Tanzanian, 1932-1972)

Pangolin, 1968-72

enamel bicycle paint on board, 61 x 61 cm

“Edward Saidi Tingatinga’s art career lasted only four years from 1968–72; cut tragically short when he was shot dead at the age of forty. His impact on Tanzanian art however has been profound and his legacy has continued to gain momentum. The artist initially developed his distinctive approach to creating paintings out of necessity to make ends meet, finding that he could use enamel bicycle paint on ceiling board and sell his work inexpensively. He displayed these pieces in stores across Dar es Salaam and many expatriates who lived in the area began to collect his work. As his success grew, Tingatinga hired and trained close friends and family, firstly helping him to prepare boards, and later guiding them to make their own paintings. The Tingatinga style has now become a large industry in Tanzania, with high demand from local and international buyers, but few E. S. Tingatinga originals come on the market. Value continues to increase as original works become more and more rare.”

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #WorldPangolinDay

This may be the first Orpheus Charming the Animals scene I’ve found with a #pangolin in attendance…

Aelbert Cuyp (Dutch, 1620-1691)

Orpheus Charming the Animals, c.1640

Oil on canvas, 113 x 167cm (44 1/2 x 65 3/4in.)

On display at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“The ancient Roman poet Ovid recounts how Orpheus, a legendary Greek musician, pacified wild animals with his soothing music. Here Cuyp places Orpheus in a typical Dutch landscape, populated with native species such as bulls, goats, and cats. But Cuyp adds American, Asian, and African creatures, too, including jaguars, a camel, an elephant, and an ostrich. Cuyp probably saw many of these species in person, but he almost certainly studied pictures of them in prints and books as well. His menagerie reflects the explosion of scientific knowledge that came with overseas trade and colonial ventures. The picture is, at the same time, an illustration of a Classical story, a landscape, and an animal painting. But it also makes a political statement, drawing a parallel between Orpheus's power over the animals and the Dutch Republic's dominance of the globe.”

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #WorldPangolinDay

For #WorldPangolinDay:

An Asiatic pangolin (Manis sp.), plate 82 of the John Reeves Collection of Zoological Drawings from Canton, China, c.1825-40.

Natural History Museum, London

“Reeves was a tea inspector working for the British East India Company in China. He studied the plants and animals he found in China, and commissioned local artists to create beautiful, scientifically accurate paintings of them.”

[arthistoryanimalia]

Resharing for #WorldPangolinDay

For #WorldPangolinDay:

Chinese Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla)

from the Wellesley Albums, painted in Bengal by a local artist, c. 1798-1805

British Library NHD 32/24