Today (9 May 2024) is the inaugural celebration of International Chameleon Day! Wildlife Madagascar is launching this animal appreciation day to highlight the remarkable diversity of chameleon species and shed light on the challenges they face in the wild. We are excited to honor these unique, extraordinary, and beautiful animals….
Happy #NationalAardvarkWeek! Aardvarks (Orycteropus afer) are widely distributed across Sub-Sahara Africa, and as such can be found in African visual culture from ancient rock art to contemporary works. The Bambara (also called Bamana) peoples of West Africa, especially in Mali, have a rich tradition of aardvark representation, which manifests in…
May 31st is World Parrot Day!
To celebrate, here are two cockatoos seen at the recent Majolica Mania exhibition at the Walters Art Museum:
May 23rd is World Turtle Day! This tortoise painting was an interesting find in the British portraiture rooms at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Even the signage acknowledges how unusual it is!
Haori with Penguins and Icebreaker ShipsJapan, mid-Shōwa period, 1957-58silk plain weave, stencil-printed warp and weft[photos by author] Penguins (Spheniscidae) are found almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere, with only the Galápagos penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus) skirting the other side of the equator. They definitely aren’t native to anywhere near Japan! I saw…
“The figures on this Moche vessel hold gathering sticks that collect snails depicted in sculpture relief. The snail gathering ritual is taking place on a mountain suggested by the serpentine lines that arc across the top and front of the vessel. The snails absorbed mescaline-based chemicals while feeding on San…
Here are two 19th-century turtle-shaped umbilical cord amulets from the Penn Museum‘s rotating display. The first one I saw on display this past weekend; the second one is from a visit back in 2019. I thought it looked different than what I remembered! 😉 1. Turtle-shaped umbilical cord amulet, Assiniboine…
For #WorldHoneybeeDay here is another piece from the Majolica Mania exhibition at the Walters Art Museum:
Here’s another piece from the Ancient Americas gallery at the Reading Public Museum…“Owl Supernatural Decapitor” needs to be someone’s new goth metal band name In Moche art, birds of prey are sometimes depicted as Supernatural Decapitators who sever the heads of sacrificial victims. This Decapitator Owl has a face with…
Here’s another neat piece from the recent Majolica Mania exhibition at the Walters Art Museum:
