Tag: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY for International Vulture Awareness Day #1: Antoine-Louis Barye’s vulture watercolors

International Vulture Awareness Day is celebrated annually on the first Saturday of September. There are 23 extant species of “vultures” split between two distinct taxonomies: the “New World” Vultures, a monophyletic group comprised of 7 species from the Americas in the Cathartidae family, and the “Old World” Vultures, a polyphyletic…
ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY: Cat and Turtle
ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY: an ivory hair comb from ancient Egypt decorated with rows of wildlife

Finely carved ivory combs and knife handles produced toward the end of Egypt’s prehistory demonstrate the high standards Egyptian artists had achieved, even before the Old Kingdom. This comb may have been part of the funeral equipment of an elite person who lived about 5,200 years ago. Parts of the…