Animal Sightings: Art, Animals, and European Court Culture, 1400-1550

Animal Sightings challenges two common ideas about the depiction of animals in early modern European court art: first, that the human figure relegated animals to peripheral and often symbolic roles, both compositionally and conceptually, and second, that the representation of animals during this period was predominantly tied to a growing interest in naturalism derived from scientific study and discovery.

Art historian Jodi Cranston considers the diversity of art representing animals common ...