Picturing animals in Britain, 1750-1850
Diana Donald (Author)
From fine art paintings by such artists as Stubbs and Landseer to zoological illustrations and popular prints, a vast array of animal images was created in Britain during the century from 1750 to 1850. This highly original book investigates the rich meanings of these visual representations as well as the ways in which animals were actually used and abused. What Diana Donald discovers in this fascinating study is a deep and unresolved ambivalence that lies at the heart of human attitudes toward animals. The author brings to light dichotomies in human thinking about animals throughout this key period: awestruck with the beauty and spirit of wild animals, people nevertheless desired to capture and tame them; the belief that other species are inferior was firmly held, yet at the same time animals in stories and fables were given human attributes; though laws against animal cruelty were introduced, the overworking of horses and the allure of sport hunting persisted. Animals are central in cultural history, Donald concludes, and compelling questions about them--then and now--remain unanswered
Print Book, English, 2007
Yale University Press [for] The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven [Conn.], 2007
History
ix, 377 pages : color illustrations ; 28 cm
9780300126792, 0300126794
86038517
Joseph Wright's An experiment on a bird in the air pump
pt. 1. 'Contemplations on the world of life' : natural science and the representation of animals in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Picturing animals : the art of the impossible. The struggle for existence : a new vision of nature and man
pt. 2. 'The psychology of beasthood' : from anthropocentrism to anthropomorphism. The elephant in the bookseller's shop : imagining the animal mind. Landseer's dogs
pt. 3. Animals 'wild' and 'tame' : the imperium of civilised man. 'Captives from mountain and forest' : zoos and the imperial project. Prosperity and Adversity : the life of the horse
pt. 4. The imagery of the hunt : a study in ambiguity. A 'well-grouped kill' : hunting culture and its visual expression. 'This natural, or unnatural tendency in the mind of man' : attacks on the hunting myth