INTRODUCTION

Perhaps because coatis were already popular as familiars and pets amongst Indigenous American cultures, they found themselves amongst the few non-primate quadrupeds to make their way into Europe early on in the post-1492 transatlantic trade not as dead specimens, but as live animals destined for menageries. As seen in the collection of images below, they were often illustrated wearing collars to signal their status as owned creatures. And, whether sketched from life or posed in commissioned portraits, their unique morphology was usually rendered in enough naturalistic detail to make their identification to the species level indisputable, while the range of fur colors on display (in an animal with such naturally variable pelage) can just as easily be seen to confirm the observation of unique individuals as it could be said to have anything to do with differences in artistic media and individual style.

Presented here is a visual timeline of coatis in early modern European menageries!

➡️THE FIRST COATI IN EUROPE?

Species: South American Coati (black snout, red-brown fur)

This illustration of a coati was sent to Gessner from Antonio Musa Brassavola (1500-1555), who was a physician to popes and kings. It was probably an animal from one of his clients’ menageries – note the collar! Gessner’s notes reveal his confusion over how to classify this new American animal, considering choices such as an ichneumon, an Indian mouse, or an Indian otter.

For his publication, he settled on the name “Mus Indicus” (Indian mouse), a name which would be repeated for a time by others who copied his image; eventually, the Indigenous names “coati” and “coatimundi” would come into wider use as the Tupi words were transmitted via Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch oral and written sources.

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➡️A COATI IN A FLANDERS MENAGERIE?

The image above is from the paper zoo of Charles de Saint-Omer of Bruges, a wealthy collector with a passion for natural history who commissioned hundreds of watercolors of both fauna and flora from Flemish painters in the 1560s. While he was known to also have a small collection of live animals, it is unknown if a coati was amongst them. However, it seems likely this illustration records someone’s live coati from the time, as argued by Florike Egmond:

[This] finely drawn South American coati may actually represent a captive coati that lived in Flanders in the early 1560s. We think so because of its painted collar, but especially because small numbers of American animals did indeed arrive regularly at Antwerp at this time; also, only one earlier drawing of a coati is known [see above], and it cannot have been the model for the Libri picturati one….It also shows a coati with a collar, but the painting is more clumsy that the Libri picturati drawing and the animal’s pose is different.Florike Egmond, in Eye for Detail, pp. 154-5

I would add to this that the presence of the sketch of the underside of the muzzle also strongly suggests that a live animal was observed. Additionally, here the artist has correctly portrayed the coati with five toes on each foot, something the artist of Gessner’s coati did not get right. Furthermore, this animal’s fur color and texture, face markings, and tail ringing and thickness are all different from Gessner’s image. In other words, this looks like a completely different individual. While artistic license is, of course, always at play, I agree with Egmond’s assessment that this appears to be an honest illustration of an animal observed from life — and a different one from what Brassavola had seen.

➡️COATIS IN THE HAPSBURG MENAGERIE

Both the Hapsburg courts of Emperor Maximillian II in Vienna and his son Emperor Rudolf II in Prague had well-established naturalia cultures, including both living nature in the form of gardens and menageries and natural history in the form of cabinet collections and picture albums. The Hapsburgs also had early access to obtaining American exotica, thanks to their family connections to the Spanish court via Margaret of Austria. It is thus not surprising that some of the earliest examples of coatis in European courts should be found with them — including one incredibly rare specimen whose presence in captivity is noteworthy even in modern times.

SOUTH AMERICAN COATI IMAGES

Species: South American Coati (blackish snout, light brown fur)

This study of a coati is presumed to be of an individual from the Hapsburg court menagerie, as this is what Arcimboldo was mostly sketching at the time. There is an unusual tuft at the end of the tail — could be indicative of injury or chewing?

Species: South American Coati (blackish snout, red-brown fur)

The tuft at the end of the tail suggests it may be the same individual recorded by Arcimbaldo, though the fur color is a bit different; whether he simply made his own copy of Arcimbaldo’s drawing (which he was known to do) or also observed the same coati and drew his own version is unknown. However, it is interesting to note that he signed this drawing (something he did not always do for images in this collection), and the coati in his version is also wearing a collar. Also, regarding the “Mus indicus” caption, the labels in this volume were added by another cataloger in the 18th century, not by de Boodt.

Species: South American Coati (black snout, dark red-brown fur)

A small illustration of a captive coati by an unknown artist, found in the margin of a page with another animal’s full-size portrait. No further information is available about this curious doodle.

Species: Stylized, but appears to be a South American Coati)

The coati is the gray quadruped on the trunk to the far right. Hoefnagel may have observed one in a Hapsburg court menagerie or may have modeled the figure from Gessner’s illustration in Historiae animalium. Like other illustrations in this collection, it is drawn more as an icon rather than a lifelike image.

A RARE MOUNTAIN COATI!

Above: original illustration by Guiseppe Arcimboldo of a captive Mountain Coati in a Hapsburg court menagerie, and two later derivations, collected by Ulisse Aldrovandi
Below: Aldrovandi’s published woodcut based on Arcimboldo’s illustrations in De quadrupedibus digitatis viviparis, 1637, p. 267.
[FIRST EUROPEAN IMAGES OF A MOUNTAIN COATI]

Species: Mountain Coati sp. (shorter, stouter body; shorter tail; typical fur color and face markings for genus)

Unlike their bigger, wider-ranging, and common white-nosed and black-nosed coati cousins, mountain coatis are rare and elusive. found only in the cloud forests and alpine tundra of the northern Andean highlands. I have yet to find other records of mountain coatis in early modern Europe (not even dead specimens or skins) after this single early find, and even today, they remain incredibly rare in captivity and seldom seen in the wild. So then, how did the Hapsburg court manage to get ahold of one?? Hopefully, one day, something in the archives will surface that reveals more of this creature’s surely incredible story.

➡️THE MEDICI COATI

The Medici family were well-known collectors of exotic animals in both Florence and Rome — from Lorenzo de’ Medici’s famous giraffe to Pope Leo X (aka Giovanni de’ Medici)’s beloved Hanno the Elephant, successive generations of Medici maintained menageries which they kept stocked with exotic animals as displays of political power and wealth, as well as genuine interest in natural history and science.

Species: South American Coati (black snout, red-brown fur)

Jacopo Ligozzi was a court painter for the Medici, serving four successive Grand Dukes of Tuscany — Francesco I, Ferdinando I, Cosimo II, and Fernando II. The dating of this painting suggests it was painted for one of the latter two. He was commissioned to illustrate both flora and fauna specimens for the Medici, though most of these were done as watercolors. The fact that a large oil portrait of this individual was commissioned, along with the fact that it is wearing a fancy red-belled collar, indicates it was likely a favored member of the Medici menagerie, perhaps even kept as a personal pet. The tail is also unusually short; perhaps it had suffered an injury at some point?

➡️THE COATI IN THE VERSAILLES MENAGERIE

The Versailles menagerie was built for the pleasure of King Louis XIV of France (r.1643-1715). Construction began in 1663; it was first opened to guests in 1664, though construction was not fully completed until 1669.

Species: South American Coati (black snout, brown fur)

Boel did hundreds of life studies of the animals in the Versailles menagerie. These were then used as the models for The Months or the Royal Houses tapestry cycle, with the coati appearing in the tapestry seen below (detail above).

Louis XIV spared no expense when it came to building this treasure and keeping it supplied with exotic guests, for it was a symbol of power, a display of wealth and the source of scientific interest (when animals died, they were immortalized through the anatomical dissections of the Academie Royale des Sciences directed by Claude Perrault). Thus, it is not surpising tha the animals were abundantly displayed on a par with the king’s other treasures in the foregound of the tapestries. Yet the innovation of this age was Boel’s ability to portray them from life and so grasp no only their features but also their poses.Paola Gallerani, in The Menagerie of Pieter Boel, p. 6

The Versailles coati’s portrait was also recorded by court painter Nicolas Robert (1614 – 1685), his original illustration later copied and tucked into the end of a five-volume illustrated catalog of birds of the royal menagerie, as seen below. (There is little doubt that both artists observed the same coati alive. The differences in fur color are likely just due to inherent differences in artistic media and individual artistry; note even in Roberts’ own copying of himself, there is a difference in the shade!)

This coati is also one for which I found an eyewitness testimonial for:

A specimen then living in the Paris menagerie enabled M. Cuvier to observe the following traits in its character: — It had previously enjoyed complete liberty, and was found a useful inhabitant of the barns and stables of its master, which it soon cleared of rats and mice, which it caught with great dexterity ; it would also search in the garden for worms and snails. On being put under restraint, it bit at every person; but, as soon as it came to be regularly fed, it evinced much docility; it would thrust its long muzzle under a sleeve or waistcoat, and utter a little soft cry of pleasure. When it scratched itself, it frequently made use of both its fore paws at once; and it had a singular custom of rubbing the base of its tail between its fore paws,-an action which appeared quite inexplicable. It soon took a fancy to a little dog; and, as the friendship seemed mutual, they were both allowed to inhabit the same cage.William Swainson, in Animals in Menageries, London, 1838

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➡️THE COATI IN THE PRINCE OF SAVOY’S MENAGERIE

Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663 – 1736) was a wealthy retired military commander whose successful career in service to three Hapsburg emperors allowed him to pursue his personal passions later in life, including establishing his own menagerie at the Belvedere in Vienna.

The Belvedere – in historical maps, prints, and documents mostly referred to as the prince’s “garden” – allowed him to also pursue his passions as a lover of nature. As early as 1716, Prince Eugene had acquired a piece of land on which to establish his menagerie, and the facility was modelled on the menagerie of Louis XIV in Versailles. … A series of colored engravings, watercolors, prints and paintings exist to illustrate what the menagerie contained. According to records, a total of 43 species of mammals, 67 species of bird were in the Menagerie of the Prince.  After his death the Menagerie was disbanded. Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI acquired some of the animals for his Zoo in Neugebãude castle.Dr. Agnes Husslein-Arco, in Prince Eugene of Savoy, the Great Statesman and Soldier, as Collector, Bibliophile, Naturalist, p. 9

Kleiner’s plate collection served as a catalog of the Prince’s menagerie. Fig. a of this plate is another depiction of Savoy’s coati seen in Hamilton’s painting, and here it is shown wearing a collar, which is red in the colored copy. The fur color is different than in the painted version, though this could be due to any number of factors, including inherent differences between media, and whether or not the person coloring the print had even seen the coati in real life.

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➡️A COATI IN GENOA?

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➡️THE FIRST WHITE-NOSED COATIS IN EUROPE?

Species: White-Nosed Coati (white snout, brown fur)

With the exception of the (truly exceptional) Mountain Coati that somehow found its way into the Hapsburg court very early in the Columbian Exchange, every coati thus recorded in an early modern European menagerie has been a South American Coati. Even in scientific sources, thus far the earliest images of the more northern-ranging White-Nosed Coati I found date to the mid-1700s (see Appendix). That is until I zoomed into the above painting by Flemish-born Dutch Golden Age painter Roelant Savery and found this pair of white noses lurking in the upper left corner of the canvas…

Savery worked as a court painter for the Hapsburgs for a time, including for Emperor Rudolf II, and surely saw many of the exotic animals seen in his paintings during his time there. However, as we have just seen, no other visual evidence has been found for White-Nosed Coatis there. Of course, it is still possible that someone amongst the Hapsburgs had one at some point. And, as seen with the mystery coati recorded in the Flemish paper zoo, it is also possible that coatis were already present in menageries in Dutch and Flemish territories, or at the very least, were able to be observed as they were brought in from ships arriving from the Americas stocked with exotic fauna and flora.

Update: I have also spotted a South American Coati in another Savery painting, seen below. If anyone finds any others in his painted menageries, please let me know! (Also interesting that I have yet to find any in a Brueghel painting…)

Species: South America Coati (brown snout, brown fur)

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CONCLUSION

Parrots and primates were always the first and most often imported live animals to European menageries whenever “new” lands were explored, and the Americas were certainly no exception. Beyond this, one would expect already domesticated animals from the region to become part of colonial trade, and sure enough, animals such as llamas and turkeys were, as well as guinea pigs (which, once in Europe, were transformed into very popular pets rather than food — and of course, the rest is history!). A few other interesting birds may have been procured alive for aviaries as well, but as for American quadrupeds, it seems that very few arrived in Europe as anything other than dead specimens, at least before the 18th century. There was, however, one notable early exception: coatis.

As attested to in the visual record, multiple living coatis arrived in Europe from at least as early as the mid-16th century. Why coatis, and not, say, other novel American mammals such as tapirs or peccaries or opossums or armadillos or anteaters or sloths or…? Perhaps, since coatis were apparently already popular as familiars and pets across areas of the Americas Europeans were now in contact with, combined with their appearance as something vaguely canid, and presentation as social creatures with a propensity for playful antics, they were convinced to take coatis home as living prizes for their menageries, rather than just skins for their cabinets. While the number of coatis who made the trip across the ocean during the early modern era to become transformed from familiar to exotic will never be known, those who lived in the most famous menageries had their images immortalized on canvas and paper, as showcased here.

PS: See the Appendix for the Coati Historical Natural History Art and Scientific Illustration Image Bank, a regularly updated database of coati images from the 16th – early 20th centuries!

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COATI WEBZIBIT NAVIGATION:

➡️MAIN PAGE

➡️INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS A COATI?

➡️COATIS IN INDIGENOUS AMERICAN MATERIAL AND VISUAL CULTURE

➡️COATIS IN EARLY MODERN EUROPEAN MENAGERIES

➡️REFERENCES

➡️APPENDIX: COATI HISTORICAL NATURAL HISTORY ART & SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATION (16TH-EARLY 20TH CENTURIES) IMAGE BANK

➡️COATIS IN MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART coming soon!