Animals were among the first subjects ever drawn. The urge to make sense of their bewildering variety always had a practical basis – to differentiate the edible, the toxic, the ferocious and the tractable – but it also has an artistic drive, too.
Long before Darwin, our ancestors were obsessed with the visual similarities and differences between the animals. Early scientists could sense there was an order that unified all life and formulated a variety of schemes to help illustrate this.
This book tells the fascinating, visual story of this classification.
The wonderful zoological charts reflect prevailing artistic trends and scientific discoveries, telling us as much about ourselves as they do about the creatures depicted.
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