animals

Drawings of dodo’s (generally assumed from to be life) by Joris Joostensz Laerle (1601) & Cornelis Saftleven (1638)

| Paul Greer

“Compilation of the first depictions of dodos (Raphus cucullatus) on the island Mauritius (Indian Ocean), made during the voyage of the VOC Gelderland in 1602. The caption says “These birds are caught on the island of Mauritius in large quantities because they are unable to fly. They are good food and often have stones in their stomachs, as big as eggs, sometimes bigger or smaller, and are called ‘griffeendt’ or ‘Kermis goose’.” (Fuller, Errol: Dodo – From Extinction To Icon, 2002)”

“Dodo specialist Julian Hume argued that the nostrils of the living dodo would have been slits, as seen in the Gelderland, Cornelis Saftleven, Savery’s Crocker Art Gallery, and Ustad Mansur images. “

via Dr Nick Crumpton

 

Also in observation:

 

Adriaen Coenen’s Fish Book (1580)

| Paul Greer


Adriaen Coenen’s Fish Book (1580)


Adriaen Coenen’s Fish Book (1580)


Adriaen Coenen’s Fish Book (1580)


Adriaen Coenen’s Fish Book (1580)


Adriaen Coenen’s Fish Book (1580)

“Selected double-page spreads from Adriaen Coenen’s Visboek (Fish Book), an epic 800+ page tome on all things fish and fish-related. Coenen began work on this unique book in 1577, at the age of 63, and in three years gathered an unprecedented amount of information on the sea and its coasts, coastal waters, fishing grounds and marine animals. The information was largely gathered in the course of Coenen’s daily work in the Dutch sea-side village of Scheveningen as a fisherman and fish auctioneer and, later on, as wreck master of Holland (allowing him access to every strange creature that washed ashore). Coenen was also a well respected authority in academic circles and used this reputation to receive learned works on the sea from The Hague and Leiden, copied extracts from which find their way into his Fish Book.”

— Public Domain Review

Visboek (FishBook), 1560 (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 78 E 54)

Image | | Paul Greer

reblogging erikkwakkel:


HAdriaen Coenen


Adriaen Coenen


HAdriaen Coenen


Adriaen Coenen




Adriaen Coenen

“These wonderful, and sometimes fantastic, images of marine animals come from Adriaen Coenen’s Visboek (FishBook), which he published in 1560 (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 78 E 54). A fisherman, Coenen gathered all information he could find on the sea and its coasts, coastal waters, fishing grounds and marine animals, which he described in more than 800 pages.”

Karoo Ashevak

Image | | Paul Greer

Karoo Ashevak

Karoo Ashevak, (Fantasy) Figure with Birds, 1972

Karoo Ashevak (1940 – October 19, 1974) was an Inuit sculptor who lived a nomadic hunting life in the Kitimeot, central Arctic region before moving into Spence Bay in 1960. His career as an artist started in 1968 by participating in a government-funded carving program. Working with the primary medium of fossilized whalebone, Ashevak created approximately 250 sculptures in his lifetime, and explored themes of shamanism and Inuit spirituality through playful depictions of human figures, shamans, spirits, and arctic wildlife