Ebook249 pages2 hours
The Paper Zoo: 500 Years of Animals in Art
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this ebook
As children, our first encounters with the world’s animals do not arise during expeditions through faraway jungles or on perilous mountain treks. Instead, we meet these creatures between the pages of a book, on the floor of an obliging library. Down through the centuries, illustrated books have served as our paper zoos, both documenting the world’s extraordinary wildlife in exquisite detail and revealing, in hindsight, how our relationship to and understanding of these animals have evolved over time.
In this stunning book, historian of science Charlotte Sleigh draws on the ultimate bibliophile’s menagerie—the collections of the British Library—to present a lavishly illustrated homage to this historical collaboration between art and science. Gathering together a breathtaking range of nature illustrations from manuscripts, prints, drawings, and rare printed books from across the world, Sleigh brings us face to face (or face to tentacle) with images of butterflies, beetles, and spiders, of shells, fish, and coral polyps. Organized into four themed sections—exotic, native, domestic, and paradoxical—the images introduce us to some of the world’s most renowned natural history illustrators, from John James Audubon to Mark Catesby and Ernst Haeckel, as well as to lesser-known artists. In her accompanying text, Sleigh traces the story of the art of natural history from the Renaissance through the great age of exploration and into the nineteenth century, offering insight into the changing connections between the natural and human worlds.
But the story does not end there. From caterpillars to crabs, langurs to dugongs, stick insects to Old English pigs; from the sinuous tail feathers of birds of paradise to the lime-green wings of New Zealand’s enormous flightless parrot, the kakapo; from the crenellated plates of a tortoise’s shell to imagined likenesses of unicorns, mermaids, and dinosaurs, the story continues in this book. It is a Paper Zoo for all time.
In this stunning book, historian of science Charlotte Sleigh draws on the ultimate bibliophile’s menagerie—the collections of the British Library—to present a lavishly illustrated homage to this historical collaboration between art and science. Gathering together a breathtaking range of nature illustrations from manuscripts, prints, drawings, and rare printed books from across the world, Sleigh brings us face to face (or face to tentacle) with images of butterflies, beetles, and spiders, of shells, fish, and coral polyps. Organized into four themed sections—exotic, native, domestic, and paradoxical—the images introduce us to some of the world’s most renowned natural history illustrators, from John James Audubon to Mark Catesby and Ernst Haeckel, as well as to lesser-known artists. In her accompanying text, Sleigh traces the story of the art of natural history from the Renaissance through the great age of exploration and into the nineteenth century, offering insight into the changing connections between the natural and human worlds.
But the story does not end there. From caterpillars to crabs, langurs to dugongs, stick insects to Old English pigs; from the sinuous tail feathers of birds of paradise to the lime-green wings of New Zealand’s enormous flightless parrot, the kakapo; from the crenellated plates of a tortoise’s shell to imagined likenesses of unicorns, mermaids, and dinosaurs, the story continues in this book. It is a Paper Zoo for all time.
Read more from Charlotte Sleigh
Six Legs Better: A Cultural History of Myrmecology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod's Green Book: Seven Bible studies about the environment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Paper Zoo
Related ebooks
Ernst Haeckel's Art Forms in Nature: A Visual Masterpiece of the Natural World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFeather and Brush: A History of Australian Bird Art Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnimal Illustration: The Essential Reference Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers, Butterflies and Insects: All 154 Engravings from "Erucarum Ortus" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Handbook of Biological Illustration Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Biology of Chameleons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Curious World of Seahorses: The Life and Lore of a Marine Marvel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPocket Guide to the Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Birds of Lake Merritt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Flower Book - Illustrated by Maxwell Armfield Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hand-painted Textiles: A Practical Guide to the Art of Painting on Fabric Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArt Forms in Nature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Insects, Science & Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElementary Instruction in the Art of Illuminating and Missal Painting on Vellum: A Guide to Modern Illuminators Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGorgeous Beasts: Animal Bodies in Historical Perspective Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIllustrating Nature: How to Paint and Draw Plants and Animals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tattoo: Journeys On My Mind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSea-Weeds, Shells and Fossils Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Paint Birds Using Oil Paints Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBirds' Nests and Eggs - With Directions for Preparing, Stuffing, and Mounting Birds and Animals Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMeet the Invertebrates: Anemones, Octopuses, Spiders, Ants, and Others Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Technical Image: A History of Styles in Scientific Imagery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Natural Processes in Textile Art: From Rust Dyeing to Found Objects Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Instruction: Vintage Educational Charts from the 19th and 20th Centuries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Premise of Fidelity: Science, Visuality, and Representing the Real in Nineteenth-Century Japan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPressed Plants: Making a Herbarium Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Naturalist's Illustrated Guide to the Sierra Foothills and Central Valley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPractical Field Ecology: A Project Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales and Drawings of a Life by the Sea Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
History For You
The Secret History of the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know: Secrets, Conspiracies, Cover Ups, and Absurdities Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Library Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whore Stories: A Revealing History of the World's Oldest Profession Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Richest Man in Babylon: The most inspiring book on wealth ever written Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lessons of History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of The War of Art: by Steven Pressfield | Includes Analysis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wise as Fu*k: Simple Truths to Guide You Through the Sh*tstorms of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Paper Zoo
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Paper Zoo - Charlotte Sleigh
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1