I'm curious on the approach taken. Are the arrows based on known derivation/influences, or based on perceived similarity? It's a master's thesis.<p>This here:<p><a href="https://www.uliwestphal.de/elephas-anthropogenus/soloelephants/1475-1500.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.uliwestphal.de/elephas-anthropogenus/soloelephan...</a><p>Does not seem to be an elephant to me. Maybe a vomiting deer, or with a bad case of worms of serpentitis. (:
This is like the gif where everyone draws a picture on the back of the person in front and the end result is nothing like the original. Chinese whispers in art form!
So, I know the meme that the European middle ages were some time of great civilizational downfall ("dark ages") is itself pretty much debunked by now.<p>But there must have been some kind of change between antiquity and middle ages that caused so much knowledge and international exchange to simply vanish.<p>I really wonder what exactly went on there.
The author also has a page with text descriptions for various animals in a similar vein: <a href="https://www.uliwestphal.de/retrozoology/index.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.uliwestphal.de/retrozoology/index.html</a><p>> <i>The octopus as a rule does not live the year out. It has a natural tendency to run off into liquid; for, if beaten and squeezed, it keeps losing substance and at last disappears.</i><p>Well, can't say that I won't do about the same if beaten and squeezed.<p>Also, another animal with plenty of wild depictions is the tiger. East-Asian paintings especially walk between hilarious and cool, and it's often clear that the artists didn't particularly want to see a real tiger close.<p>Itō Jakuchū:
<a href="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/14/63/f8/1463f891232e00f9165d05809828138a.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://i.pinimg.com/736x/14/63/f8/1463f891232e00f9165d05809...</a><p>Marked as ‘Meiji’, so fairly recent, but I like it: <a href="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/9e/d1/6a/9ed16aad46e17fcbe521d68e0f67edec--tiger-art-tiger-tiger.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://i.pinimg.com/736x/9e/d1/6a/9ed16aad46e17fcbe521d68e0...</a>
Really a cool project. Thinking about how to describe and elephant: like a giant ox but with big ears a long protruding nose and tusks (not not for female Asian elephants). Can easily see how that game of telephone would go sideways.
This one looks like a dragon: <a href="https://www.uliwestphal.de/elephas-anthropogenus/soloelephants/jpgs/1479.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://www.uliwestphal.de/elephas-anthropogenus/soloelephan...</a>
Some of these are pretty wild. Makes me wonder if similar mischaracterized/illustrated of animal depictions were the source for the belief in dragons and other monsters
The early drawings remind me of the "Yee" video art direction.
<a href="https://youtu.be/q6EoRBvdVPQ" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/q6EoRBvdVPQ</a>
What was going on in the mid to late 1400s? They had some crazy psychedlic drawings of elephants. Even more so than most earlier times. Though, maybe that is the answer. Maybe people in earlier times had actually seen a Roman elephant. Then maybe people in later times had actually seen a real elephant. Then in the middle (1400s) you have people that are hundreds of years removed from anyone actually seeing one.
One thing is certain - We can be pretty sure that <i>MOST</i> of our depictions and ideas of long ago extinct animals are scarcely any better than these. Even with the highest scientific rigor intended, they almost always do a better job of reflecting the preconceptions and biases of the artists than the reality of the animal itself...
Years ago I read a fascinating article (that I cannot locate again) about the wildly inaccurate illustrations of animals available in old books, often drawn by artists who had never seen the animal, but drew one from verbal descriptions by people who had. Something like a visual game of telephone.
this one is just a meme shitpost
<a href="https://www.uliwestphal.de/elephas-anthropogenus/soloelephants/jpgs/~1400.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://www.uliwestphal.de/elephas-anthropogenus/soloelephan...</a>
How many of these artists had seen an elephant in real life. How many were drawing it from descriptions (e.g. fan like ears. ribbed long arm like nose, large feet could describe some early drawings)