ANIMALS IN ART
PREHISTORIC ART
TO
CONTEMPORARY ART
PREHISTORIC ARTISTS
 During the last Ice Age,
prehistoric artists painted
animals inside of caves.
 They are primarily herd
animals they hunted for
survival.
 They are depicted from the
side.
 These are hunters and deer
from Lascaux cave in
Southern France.
REALISM
 Many of the animals are
shaded to look rounded.
 They also are painted with
realistic earth colors.
 In most cases proportions
are correct.
 They are pretty amazing
considering they are
painted high on walls and
on ceilings.
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES
 The native peoples of
Australia painted animals
with their interiors
showing.
 They considered these
interiors structures part of
a greater life force, which
they called the “Dreaming.”
 They painted on rock, skin
and bark cloth.
ANCIENT EGYPT
 The early Egyptians
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revered certain animals.
They depicted them
somewhat symbolically.
Their forms are depicted
according to traditional
guidelines.
This is a hunting dog.
It is carved from Ebony
wood and painted with
gold.
EGYPTIAN
PAINTING
 Egyptian artists depicted
animals from the side in
their paintings, just like
the prehistoric artists
did.
 They are also shaded to
look rounded and in
mostly correct
proportions.
GREEK SCULPTURE
 Early Greek artists
simplified forms so that
they appear to be abstract.
 This bronze horse dates to
before 300 BC.
 Notice that certain parts of
the animal are exaggerated,
such as the nose, ears, and
tail.
 The rest of the form is
reduced to basic shapes.
OTHER PRIMITIVE CULTURES
Other primitive cultures such as Native Americans, Central
American Natives, African, and others also simplified forms.
Notice the red bear. His form is almost oblong, with just a few
features carved out.
NORTHWEST INDIAN MASK
 Just as in the bear
sculpture, certain aspects of
this bird face have been
exaggerated.
 The eyes are larger than a
real bird’s eyes.
 The beak is very long and
pointed.
 Paint and rafia for feathers
have been added for extra
effect.
NORTHWEST TOTEMS
 Similar to the Northwest
Indian mask, the totems of
that region also exhibit
simplification.
 Certain features are also
exaggerated.
 Sometimes, it is difficult to
determine exactly which
animal is represented.
CENTRAL AMERICAN NATIVE ART
 In what is now
Mexico, native
American peoples
made simplified
animal sculptures.
 These are also
simplified.
 This one represents a
monkey.
OAXACAN
 These Oaxacan
sculptures are called
alebrijes.
 Sometimes they are
brightly colored like
this one.
 This one is a modern
version made of thin
tin.
MAYAN COMPOSITE CREATURES
 The Mayans invented
strange creatures with
features from different
animals.
 These are called composite
creatures.
 This one has a snake
emerging from a mixture
of wild cat and lizard head.
AFRICAN ART
 African art is usually 3-D.
 It is usually either
functional, such as this
table, or related to
religious rites.
 Much of African art is
carved from wood or ivory.
 Some is made of cast
metals.
HEADDRESS
 This antelope headdress
would have been worn as
part of a religious ritual
dance.
 Notice the abstracted form
of the figure.
 It is difficult to identify the
original animal. The horns
are the most naturalistic.
 Obviously realism was not
important to the artist.
IMAGINATIVE ERRORS
 Some distortions are due to
lack of knowledge of how
creatures look.
 During the Middle Ages
artists depicted elephants
with many errors.
 Artists were drawing
images based upon written
descriptions.
DIFFERENCE IN FOCUS
 Some proportional
errors of the Middle
Ages were due to a
difference in focus.
 Medieval artists were
not interested in
realism, only in
symbolism.
DIFFERENT CULTURES DEPICT
ANIMALS DIFFERENTLY
 As realistic as this Indian
elephant looks, it is still
stylized.
 The head is too large
proportionally to the body.
 The skin is is also smooth,
whereas elephants’ skins
are wrinkly.
ARABIAN ANIMALS
 Here are both realistic and
imaginary animals.
 Here the heads of some of
the creatures, such as the
horses, are too small.
 Also, they are in an
unrealistic landscape.
CHINESE DESIGN
 This horse is typical of
Chinese horse designs.
 The neck is very thick and
the body fat.
 The horse is composed of
fat rounded curves.
 Think about the horses in
the movie, Mulan.
CHINESE PAINTING
 Chinese painting styles
are traditional.
 Artists have followed
the same formulae for
depicting creatures
and landscapes for
centuries.
 Notice the horse in the
painting is also fat and
rounded.
WESTERN RENAISSANCE
 As this horse sculpture by
Leonardo da Vinci
illustrates, a push for
realism developed in the
West during the 1400’s,
the Renaissance.
 Notice that all of the
muscles and tendons are
visible on the surface of the
horse’s skin, just as in real
life.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
 In Northern Europe during
the Renaissance a careful
attention to detail evolved.
 Notice the very realistic fur
of this hare in this
watercolor by Albrecht
Durer, a German artist.
 The form and proportions
of the hare are very
accurate.
 This was due to drawing
from life.
REALISM WITH ATTITUDE
 During the 1600’s, in
Europe, Baroque artists
made images of animals
that were both very
realistic as well as very
expressive.
 This lion by Pieter Paul
Rubens is realistic, but also
very menacing.
 Rubens’ careful use of line
and value create this mood.
AMERICAN FOLK ART
 While academic training to
learn to depict people,
landscapes and animals
realistically and accurately
was the norm in Europe,
American artists did not
share that luxury.
 American art, especially of
the Colonial Period, was
full of inaccuracies.
 Artwork by untrained
artists is called Folk Art.
The Peaceable Kingdom,
Edward Hicks, c. 1834
THE LOVE OF HORSE
 Europeans loved their horses.
 They loved their spirit and physical beauty.
 They were a symbol of tamed nature during the Romantic period of
the 1800’s.
THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN
AGE
 Modern art actually
began to peak through
the traditional styles in
the late 1800’s.
 This folk-like image by
Henri Rousseau,
Surprise!, of 1891, shows
the expressive use of
color and line which
point beyond realism.
 Notice the tiger hiding in
the grass.
EXPRESSION TAKES HOLD
 Early in the 20th century,
abstraction began to
evolve.
 Abstraction is art in which
the subjects, such as the
cat, are simplified to basic
colors, lines and shapes and
not depicted realistically.
 Sometimes the subjects are
almost indistinguishable.
 Tiger, Franz Marc, 1912
 Picasso’s abstraction of the bull and horse in this painting help to
make it even more grotesquely expressive of horror.
 He did not want realism. A realistic image would not be as
disturbing.
 Guernica, Pablo Picasso, c. 1936.
CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS
 Native American artist,
Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith,
uses animals in her
paintings which were
important to American
Indian life.
 Her figures are symbolic,
not realistic.
 Her profiles of animals are
similar to the Prehistoric
and Egyptian artworks.
ANIMATION
 Animators, like Disney studios, simplify figures to make them
easier to read.
 This is common in advertising also.
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE
 Deborah Butterfield,
and other artists, stretch
the viewers’ acceptances
by suggesting objects
made from very unusual
materials.
 This Large Horse appears
to be made of sticks and
earth, but is really cast
bronze.
 She asks the viewer to
answer many different
questions about what
constitutes art.
SUMMARY
•Artists have depicted animals in artworks from the very earliest times, beginning
around 35,000 BCE.
•The depiction of animals in art is a universal theme, occurring in all times,
places, and cultures.
•Animal depictions have often been related to religious rites, as well as the study
of nature.
•At different periods of art, animals have been depicted either realistically or
symbolically, based upon the artists’ purposes and philosophies of the time.
•Abstraction of animal forms is common in nonwestern artworks. It dates from
ancient periods of time.
•Some modern artists involve the viewer in thinking about not only what is
represented, but also how and what an object is represented with.
•Contemporary artworks require viewers to be active, not passive, participants in
the art viewing experience.
TO PONDER:
•Animals are present in many cartoons.
-Why do you think many characters are animals?
•Composite creatures have been depicted throughout history: centaurs, dragons,
hippogriffs, “cat-dog”, etc.
-What purpose do you think these imaginary combine creatures serve?
•Advertisers incorporate animals into logos and on products frequently. Think of
all of the fantasy animals on cereal boxes; the Ford Mustang; the Gecko..
-Why do you think the use of animals helps to sell products?
•Most students preferred to make an animal puppet, instead of a human one,
even though they did have the option!
-Why do you think they chose to represent an animal?