ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY for World Parrot Day: Two Majolica Cockatoos
May 31st is World Parrot Day!
To celebrate, here are two cockatoos seen at the recent Majolica Mania exhibition at the Walters Art Museum:
Tag: ornithology
ON THIS DAY: The death of the last known Carolina Parakeet and Audubon’s images of a now-extinct species
It was on this day (21 February) in 1918 that the last known Carolina Parakeet, Incas, died at the Cincinnati Zoo – tragically, in the same cage the last known Passenger Pigeon, Martha, had died only four years earlier. (Even worse, unlike Martha, whose body was sent to the Smithsonian…
ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY for “Bluebird of Happiness Day”
Today is “Bluebird of Happiness Day” (there really is a day for everything isn’t there?) so here is a painting with a bluebird that hopefully brings you happiness, from the underappreciated Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865–1931):
ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY for National Hummingbird Day: Europe’s first hummingbirds?
The Vatican Loggia’s “Raphael Rooms” have long been noted for their immense variety of flora and fauna depicted, including many exotic species. Believed to have executed primarily by Rafael’s associate Giovanni da Udine (1487-1564) between 1517-1519, this artistic menagerie is thought to be an artistic catalog of the real-life menagerie…
Animal Art of the Day for International Vulture Awareness Day #2: Mansur’s vultures
Ustad Mansur (active 1590-1624) was a court artist for the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605 – 1627). He specialized in natural history art and was responsible for recording the emperor’s rare and exotic specimens, including an important image of the now-extinct Dodo that was recorded from life and in color. The…
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…
NEW EXHIBITION: “Feathered Ink” now open at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art
“Feathered Ink” is a new exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art which “explores how Japanese artists have experimented over several centuries with different brush techniques in their depictions of avian subjects,” and showcases three galleries of hanging scroll paintings, folding screens, ceramics, and printed books. In Japan,…
