In this lavishly illustrated book the author draws on the wide-ranging collections of the British Museum and the British Library to portray man's long association with the animal world. The illustrations and the text together lead the reader through all cultures and periods, from reindeer carved by a prehistoric hunter to the animal fetishes of modern Africa, from an Egyptian mummified cat to Stubbs's drawings. In sculpture and pottery, wood and bronze, coins and manuscripts, we can trace the development of man's view of animals. ... The book first looks at hunted and domesticated animals, and the describes how animals have been used symbolically in thought, religion, signs and emblems. In a chapter on stories and fables we see how by making animals play the role of men writers have been able to point fun at human foibles and weakness. In the last two chapters of the book the manner of representation becomes more important than the significance. The abstract use of animals in ornament and design is contrasted with the growth of objective studies of animals. It is fascinating to discover how very recently it is that artists have learned, or wished, to portray animals realistically in the manner we accept as natural today. - [Publisher]

Language: English

071410081