Reflection on Assignment 2

I have  reviewed how I think I have done against the assessment criteria for the course as requested in the course notes. 

Demonstration of technical and visual skills: Materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills.

Over part two of the course I would say that my technical and visual skills are continuing to improve. I think they are currently adequate for this stage of the course The exercises with drawing negative shapes are now starting to translate into better observational skills.
My biggest area of weakness is still in compositional skills. I still feel I have little idea how to make a composition work.

Quality of Outcome: Content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas.

I would say that at the end of two I have reached a satisfactory stage with realisation of ideas and the presentation of my work is satisfactory. I continue to communicate my ideas better in written than in visual form but this is slowly improving.

Demonstration of Creativity: Imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice.

I don't really have a personal voice nor know how to develop one yet, but I think that's appropriate for someone at this early stage in education. I'd put myself in class D:satisfactory for this section. I have shown some evidence of creativity - especially in the experimenting with coloured media project which I really enjoyed. I've also used my creativity in the development of ideas for assignment 2 however my technical limitations don't allow me to translate what I plan or visualise in my mind onto the page.

Context: Reflection, research, critical thinking.

My results are probably better than average in this respect. I have shown evidence of self reflection in my commentary throughout the learning log. I am naturally quite analytical and have studied at HE level before so I think I have a satisfactory ability to analyse and synthesise information. Although the subject matter is very different from my original studies, critical analysis should be a transferable skill. I think my research points are of an acceptable standard. I have more confidence in my ability to write factual accounts than in my ability to be creative. In this section I think that I may have included too much biographical information in some of the research points. I did this for my own interest as it did help me to place the artists in context. However I think in part three I need to be more selective in my summaries as the research points have really slowed me down.

Assignment 2

For this project I would have loved to produce an animal drawing but this was not practical at this stage and level of skill. So I wanted to produce a still life that had relevance for me. My original idea was to tackle one of the things that winds me up during my dealings with the general public on medical matters: That is the assumption that something natural will always be better for you than something produced by a pharmaceutical company. For example I've encountered clients feeding their dogs garlic as a 'natural flea repellent' without realising that  onions and garlic can cause acute haemolytic anaemia in this species. My usual response to this is that just because something is natural it doesn't mean it is good for you - would you eat deadly nightshade? 

I quickly realised that if I wanted to go down the line of beautiful but deadly I was going to end up drawing a lot of plants and flowers and I didn't relish this idea from the previous plants and flowers exercise. 

At work I had an idea - I saw one of the skulls which we use for explanation purposes (mainly for dental disease). I had been looking at Dutch still lives if the 16th and 17th century and I came up with the idea of producing a sort of canine vanitas drawing.  Vanitas paintings were intended to remind people of the futility of earthly achievements. Usually these included symbols of power, wealth and achievements and sometimes the remains of a meal alongside a human skull and other symbols of decay/ending such as wilting flowers or a snuffed out candle.

Obviously some of that theme is not relevant to dogs - dogs do not read books or circumnavigate the globe! Neither are they interested in money or jewels. However, there are certain resources that they do covet and will fight over if necessary such as a nice juicy bone. I wanted to also include some of the natural forms that dogs might encounter but which were toxic. I started off with oleander (contains cardiac glycosides and can case heart rhythm disturbances and death if chewed), onions and garlic (haemolytic anaemia) and grapes (acute renal failure). A included a large hide chew in the shape of a bone as this is something my own dog particularly loves (I gave it to him after the drawing was finished). I also liked the irony of a real dog's skull chewing on something that was a man-made generic 'bone shape'. The size of the chew bone proved slightly problematic as the it was Mac (large dog) sized and the skull I had must have been from a small terrier. In order to fit the bone in the skull's mouth the jaw ended up being dislocated.

I toyed with the idea of including a bottle of Pentoject (the anaesthetic we use for euthanasia in pets) as a comment on the fact that we humans control the life and death of our pets but quickly rejected that on the basis of ending up with too many man-made and not enough natural forms. (and the complications related to controlled drugs)

I decided to use soft pastels on a dark sandpaper background because of the chalky texture of the skull and the fact that I could use white on dark to represent the bright illumination of the oleander petals. 

I drew numerous thumbnail sketches in my sketchbook. I tried to include all the objects in various ways including suspending some of them using string. Once again I simplified and pared the arrangement right down. I found this made it less overcrowded and allowed some interesting negative shapes in the middle of the composition. I am still not confident about finding the best composition and floundered around at this stage for quite some time. In the end I realised that each new sketch was not actually taking me any further forward. I was procrastinating so I had to start the final drawing.,

By the time I started the final drawing my second lot of oleander sprigs was wilting, but I liked the way the wilted sprigs draped and drooped and I felt that this was in keeping with the vanitas theme. In fact, despite my problems with drawing flowers, the part of this composition that I like best is the flowers - especially those with the bright illumination on the bottom left. I have deliberately kept my treatment of them quite simple and I think this works well. I am less pleased with the skull. In this foreshortened view I have tried to model the skull and show its three-dimensionalty with colour and tone but to me it still looks a bit flat. I was afraid to work into it any further because I didn't want to obliterate the marks I had made on its surface. I also think that overall, the purple shades have got a bit over-dominant (the background fabric was blue not purple) but it does complement the yellow tones in the skull, chew, wall  and leaves.

Check And Log: Drawing Animals

What were the main challenges of drawing animals?

The main challenge is the one of movement - you can't ask a dog or a cat to hold a pose for half an hour or even 10 minutes. Even sleeping animals tend to move around quite a lot to change position for comfort. This means that it is no use being tentative. You have to try  to capture the essence of the body position and character of what you are drawing very rapidly. You can always take advantage and work it up into a more detailed drawing if the animal unexpectedly keeps still but is best to assume when you start that there is a very limited window of opportunity. It is much more difficult to capture an animal's vitality when drawing from a photo.

Which media did you enjoy using most and which did you feel were best for the subject matter and why?

I enjoyed using biro for the quick sketches of cats. You can draw rapidly and confidently with this without worrying about damaging the nib of the pen. 

I also really enjoyed using  the oil pastels for the fish. I thought these worked really well for the reflective surface of the scales as I was able to use opaque white pastel on a dark background for the highlight and multiple colours together for the reflections in the scales. 

As an aside - for quick sketches at work I found a drawing app on my I-pad that was quite useful. This meant that I could draw with confidence without wasting reams of paper when drawings weren't coming out well.

Where can you go to draw more animals?

I have a lot of opportunity for drawing animals where I live. Most of our neighbours have at least one pig and lots of chickens. There's a dairy farm up the road and a buffalo farm a few minutes' drive away (for buffalo mozzarella). I had a lot more opportunities for drawing interesting animals at work (particularly wildlife casualties) than I actually had time for drawing. I've taken photos but am wary of drawing from the photos.

I could go to a wildlife park or zoo to draw. I also really liked the fish exercise so perhaps I should go to the aquarium? When I win the lottery I'll go to the Galapagos islands and take my son on Safari in Africa!

Exercise: Fish on a Plate

I decided to try doing this at the flat in Leeds as the flat is cooler then my house in Italy. The local supermarket, however had a very limited selection of fish (I was looking for mackerel or rainbow trout ideally) but I found some packs of two sea bass which were exceptionally cheap as they were at their sell-by date. There aren't any decorative plates in the Locum flat in Leeds so I used a large white plate but covered it with previously crumpled aluminium foil to add background interest.

I approached this exercise with a certain amount of trepidation. I was looking forward to looking at the myriad of colours reflected in fishy scales but I would have to overcome my natural aversion to dead fish. I'm not squeamish in general (my job involves contact with all sorts of bodily fluids and interesting odours) but the smell of fish has always had a direct link to my nausea centre. I can't eat fish if it tastes at all 'fishy', only if it is exceptionally bland and preferably covered in batter, deep fried and accompanied by chips, mushy peas and ketchup. 

The other source of my trepidation was that I have no experience of using water soluble pencils (except as normal coloured pencils without water) - but I thought this medium would be good for the subject as well as the rough texture of the Bockingford paper which I thought might help with the capturing of the texture of the scales.







Initially I was pleased with the medium as being water soluble it was somewhat translucent which I thought would be perfect for representing fins. I found that pushing the colour around with a damp, almost dry brush gave nice angular marks for suggesting the crumpled foil. However, the more I worked on this with layered washes of colour, the less lively and less interesting it became. The fish really did look very dead and in particular the top of the two which looked like a stiff generic 'fish shape'. It didn't relate well to the background and looked like a plastic fish. I decided to abandon this attempt and think carefully about what I really wanted to capture before trying again.

I decided that the aspect I was most interested in was the reflective and iridescent nature of the surface of the fish. Using water based-media I find it very difficult to maintain the highlights necessary for reflective surfaces. My experiments with masking fluid have not been successful as I usually manage to damage the surface of the paper. I therefore decided that I would either have to work back into the watercolour pencil with an opaque medium such as gouache or acrylic paint or try an alternative medium.

I also looked at how other artists had approached this challenge. I printed out a number of pictures and annotated them in my sketch book. I also printed out a section of a photograph of the flank of a mackerel which nicely demonstrated that iridescent quality. I used this picture as the basis for a series of experiments with different media.

 

 

I experimented with neocolour water soluble wax crayons and water soluble marker pens on both wet and dry paper. The colours were bright and bold but looked more like a profusion of flowers in a landscape than fish scales. Also as these media were water-based. I didn't think they would overcome the problem of maintaining bright highlights on the reflective surface.

I then went on to use soft pastels and oil pastels on a dark green and textured background. Both of these worked much better. The dark background provided good contrast with the reflective scales and allowing some of the paper to show through helped with the depiction of texture. The colours were nice and bold and I could  put on white really thickly for the strong reflections. I decided to use oil pastels for the second attempt at this subject because I have less experience with these than with soft pastels and this is a learning process.

This second attempt was done at home in Italy. It depicts a 'Spigola Mare' (I think that's a small sea bass) on a hand glazed Italian plate. This was altogether a much more pleasant experience than my first attempt. The fish was much fresher and didn't smell at all. I was able to work much more quickly than with the watercolour pencils and I think the result is much more lively. I really enjoyed using the oil pastels and found it much easier to give a suggestion of the reflections and texture of the surface with these.

I also find the composition more interesting than the first attempt. The background plate was also much more interesting and gave a good contrast with the fish as well as its colours being reflected on the fish's body.

Research Point: Animal Anatomy and George Stubbs

Look at the skeletal structure of the cat, dog or horse:

I think I've got an unfair advantage on this research point as an animal surgeon. I've studied animal anatomy for several years. Worked as a vet for more than 20, and I've also taught anatomy at undergraduate level. I've taken the liberty of not uploading any anatomical diagrams as if I need them I have access to Miller's Anatomy of the Dog and Dyce, Sack and Wensing's textbook of Veterinary Anatomy on my bookshelves at home and at work. 

However, having said that I don't necessarily think that all this experience with animals will make me any better at drawing them. What it might give me is the ability to better discern when my drawings are anatomically incorrect. however, I think that too much knowledge about a drawing subject might actually interfere with the drawing of it. There may well be a tendency for my left brain's knowledge of anatomy to over-rule my right brain making me want to draw what I know rather than what I see.

Research the anatomical drawings of George Stubbs (1724 - 1806) and consider how these inform Stubbs' finished pieces.

The name of George Stubbs escaped me as a stressed 17 year old facing a panel of 6 interviewers during my interview for Vet School (far too many years ago to mention) so George Stubbs always has negative associations in my mind for that reason alone. The conversation went like this:

Interviewer: " I see you like drawing and painting as a Hobby - do you paint animals?"
Me: " Erm... no, they don't tend to sit still"
Interviewer: " Do you think that studying animal anatomy and doing animal dissections will help you with your drawing?"
Me: " Erm... it might do. There's a book in the library about a famous artist who used to dissect horses to help him to paint them. His name was Um....Um... Well anyway he was quite famous"

I still cringe when I think about that - but I will never again forget the name of George Stubbs!

Stubbs was born in Liverpool and was the son of a Currier (a specialised leather worker who shaved leather for fine leatherwork). 

As a young boy Stubbs' interest in anatomy was encouraged by his neighbour Dr Holt who provided him with dissection specimens to draw. His father, however despite liking his son's draughtsmanship and the scientific interest he had could not see being an artist as a good way to earn a living and( jokingly) advised him to 'learn the fiddle' so that he could at least busk to feed himself.

To train as an artist he was initially apprenticed to Hamlet Winstanley and his training was to consist of copying various old masters at a stately home. When they couldn't agree on which paintings Stubbs should be allowed to copy the apprenticeship dissolved. Hence Stubbs ended up being mostly self taught. He also became very averse to the practice of copying other artists' work preferring to draw directly from nature. In this he was inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci who had urged artists ' not to represent the works of man, but those of nature who at the the same time is so abundant in her production that it is ridiculous to have recourse to her servants who have nothing but what they borrowed from her.' (1)

Stubbs studies from life go against the convention of the time in that artists were supposed to learn their craft and the representation of human anatomy by copying statues and busts of idealised forms. There were several obstacles to Stubb's endeavours in anatomically accurate drawing. The biblical belief at the time was that people needed their human remains to remain  intact in order to rise again. People were given a 'decent Christian Burial and murderers were hung drawn and quartered to prevent their resurrection. Surgeons were hated (there were no anaesthetics) and their practices as well as medical dissections were considered abhorrent. Stubbs would have come into contact with some unsavoury characters in order to procure specimens for the study of human anatomy ( Grave robbers). When in 1747 the Obstetrician John Burton asked him to illustrate 'An Essay Towards a Complete New system of Midwifry' Stubbs somehow managed to procure the body of a woman who had died in childbirth. He would have used this one body for all of his drawings by removing the fetus and replacing it in many different positions. He was not satisfied with the quality of the etchings he produced and left these unsigned and anonymous. 

Stubbs major work on horse anatomy came after this when he moved to rural Lincolnshire around 1756. He suspended a series of horses from an iron bar with hooks placed through its ribs and proceeded to progressively dissect the integument and musculature. He worked on this project for 18 months and some of the drawings he produced are shown below. He had envisaged his work being of use also to Veterinary Surgeons. However as his prime concern was the muscular and skeletal structure of the animal to inform his subsequent paintings, he discarded all the internal organs so his works were not really appropriate for Vets. (1) (2)
 From his drawings he engraved 18 plates for printing. He was unable to find a publisher initially his engravings not being in line with the fashion for embellishment and decoration with landscape in anatomical drawings. However it was from his anatomical drawings that he made contacts with prominent people who were interested in hunting and horse racing and he started to get commissions for hunting scenes and portraits of great racehorses.

Figures one and two show two different view of a flayed horse
and its superficial musculature

Figures three and four show progression of an equine dissection

Stubbs' paintings are certainly informed by his study of anatomy. The horses are proportionate and the musculature is accurate. However, personally I am not drawn to his work. There is something very formal and static about the way he represents the animals. This was obviously in line with the fashion of the day. However, even in paintings which represent animals in various phases of motion such as this example here of a hunt there is something strangely static about them. The prancing and jumping horses in that example do not look as if they have been caught instantaneously and that their momentum will cause them to continue on their path immediately. Instead they look as though they have been frozen forever. Is this the result of spending a lot of time studying dead animals? Stubbs was certainly was influenced by Leonardo Da Vinci but rather than capturing that vitality of animals in motion as Leonardo did I feel that again Stubbs , like Durer again makes the animals into objects to be accurately and scientifically rendered. I don't warm to these animals - to me they are still lives rather than portraits of living creatures.

There are a couple of exceptions to this including the Rearing Portrait of Whistlejacket which captures the fear in the horse's expression. Also in the picture below you get a great sense of the animal's power and that the owner and groom are struggling to control this prancing, highly strung horse.

Compare those paintings to this one:

Theres something stiff and not quite right about the animal's gait. I'd say that Stubbs was a master at representing the anatomy of horses in painting but he didn't always get it quite right when looking at their motion.

(1) George Stubbs and the Wide Creation: Animals, People and Places in the Life of George Stubbs 1724-1806 Robin Blake (Chatto and Windus 2005)

(2) Stubbs, George Biography by Judy Egerton Grove Art Online Via Oxford Art online . www.oxfordartonline.com:80/subscriber/article/grove/art/T081954

Grabbing the Chance

I loved this exercise. Obviously the subject matter is interesting to me. Being a Veterinary Surgeon is entwined as a large part of my identity hence I am somewhat obsessed with animals. The advantage of my career in this case was that I had a lot of subject material to choose from amongst my own animals and some of my patients. I worked on this exercise over a long period of time alongside and between the other exercises.

I ended up with a large number of drawings and a selection are presented here but not in chronological order.

The ducks I came across when I went to a Veterinary conference in Rimini a few weeks ago. After lunch I went for a short walk around the lake outside the conference centre. I loved the shapes the ducks were making with their necks when they were preening. Unfortunately I didn't have time to stay and draw them so I pointed my ipad vaguely in their direction and took loads of photos in rapid succession. I know that drawing from photos wasn't part of the exercise so rather than doing detailed drawings from these photos I set a timer and did multiple two minute sketches from selected photos. I was trying to capture the essence and movement of each pose without getting too caught up in detail. I then looked at a further exercise in "experimental Drawing' which asked me to try to capture the gestures with ink on a brush and very few lines. This was extremely difficult. I enjoyed the freedom of trying to do bold and beautiful strokes with the big brush but didn't produce anything of note. The image below is my best effort at this.

Over the weeks I have drawn lots of the inpatients at work. I liked the character of this pug puppy and the bizzare alien-like shape of his head.

The image below is one of my favourites featuring our dog Mac - although there is very little detail in the upper face of the two I quite like it as it captures his 'hang dog' miserable expression of the time with that sidelong glance from under his eyelids. He was tired and had been disturbed while sleeping. He was just about to lie back down with a groan and a sigh.

This series of cat pictures marked a major step forward for me as it was the first time I had the courage to draw outdoors with other people around.  My neighbour pointed out to me the positions in which the cats were sleeping in the sunshine. I immediately grabbed my sketchbook and started to draw them before they woke up. The first drawing (the brown one) was hampered by self consciousness and ended up out of proportion. The biro drawings are better. I particularly like their smug expressions as they luxuriate lazily sunbathing on the patio.

The cats proved to be very fruitful in terms of drawing opportunities. I particularly like the exaggerated curves of their necks when they are grooming.

The tortoise wasn't as easy to draw as I had anticipated. Sheldon moves around a lot when eating lettuce. This might be a better subject for a nice textural drawing later on. Her body shape isn't as aesthetically pleasing to me as those of the cats and dogs though.

I decided that the thing that interests me the most about the animals are their facial expressions and the way that they move - I found some time lapse photos of animals moving by Edweard Muybridge and tried to get a sense of the weight and direction of motion of the photographed animals. I used to love making 'flicker book animations' when I was a kid. I'd really love to do some animation of animal movement. My son does a lot of animation as a hobby and I've now downloaded i-stop motion software onto my i-pad - it's just a case of finding some time ...

For my larger drawing I chose a particularly grumpy patient that we had in the hospital. He was a large and overweight pug and his temperament really matched his miserable -looking facial features. I Although I have captured the flatness of his features and the deeply grooved frown lines on his forehead which, coupled with his down-turned mouth telegraph his misery*, I do think it is obvious that these were drawn from photos.  They aren't as lively as some of the other sketches from life. 

(* note the blatant anthropomorphism here)

I think I missed an opportunity here. I would probably have done better if I'd gone back and developed one of the sketches of the smug sunbathing cats. That would have given me more opportunity to develop the texture of their coats. I intend to do that at some point but this will be after I submit assignment 2 as time is running out.

Research Point: Renaissance Masters' Depiction of Animals

I have already touched on this subject in my previous  research point about Albrecht Durer. One of the key points about the renaissance (according to 19th Centrury historian Jacob Burkhardt in 'The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy' but debated since) was that the sense of the individual person became a more important subject than in  previous ages. This gave rise to the concept of the 'Renaissance man' - a multi-talented, ideal 'Uomo Universale'. Both Leonardo da Vinci and Durer would typify this concept. This concept of this individual and sense of self gave rise to developments in portraiture to represent the individual but also meant that artists started to combine art and science  to get closer to their 'ideal' representation of nature - their aim was really to enhance nature and produce idealised images through close study. 

Leonardo and Durer were both influenced by painters that preceded them from the Netherlands such as Jan Van Eyck. An example of the evolution from medieval to renaissance art is the Ghent altarpiece. Medieval altarpieces were sumptuously decorated with gold leaf and the symbolism of the figures depicted was much more important than accurate anatomical representation.  The Ghent altarpiece show human and animal figures represented with a much greater attention to accuracy and realism.(1)

Fig 1: The Ghent Altarpiece by the Van Eyks

Leonardo da Vinci made numerous observations on numerous scientific and philosophical subjects (including comparative anatomy and zoology) notebooks throughout his life (2). He had an intense interest in nature and in representing animals for their own sake and for his scientific interest rather than for their purely symbolic value. He questioned man's superiority to and right to exploit other members of the animal kingdom which was a view very much out of step with the conventions of the time. (3). He published a treatise 'on the flight of birds' which was the first documented analysis of the principles of flight (4). He was also reputed to purchase caged birds in order to release them. 

Fig 2: Excerpt from Codex on the Flight of Birds

Leonardo made close inspection of animals and made numerous drawings. He would also use dissections to look more closely at the anatomy of animals and to make comparisons with human dissections he made. He made numerous sheets of studies of cats and dogs.

Fig 3: Studies of  dog paws: Leonardo has captured everything
from the angulation of the digits and claws to the
wiry/feathery texture of the hair of this rough coated dog

Fig 4: Da Vinci's attempt at comparative anatomy
of a dog's hindlimb and human leg

Fig 5: Study sheet of a dog and two cats. Particularly
impressive are his understanding of the distribution of
weight and body position in the grooming cats.

Fig 6: Study sheet of numerous cats in various positions and with various attitudes. Also included
on this sheet are a mouse and a dragon.

Fig 7: Study of a dog's face. Here measurements have
been made in attempt to make the process of drawing
more scientific.

Leonardo clearly studied these animals in great detail to get a clear understanding of the way they are formed and the way the they move and how their weight is distributed. 

Horses were ubiquitous as a mode of transport in the day of these artists so it is not surprising that there are very many studies of horses and horses and riders produced by Da Vinci.

Fig 8: Of particular interest to me in this study is the way that
Da Vinci has captured the folds on the animals neck and between
the forelimbs. You really get a sense of the thickness and the smooth
velvety texture of the animal's skin

Fig 9: This sketch shows active investigation and inquiry. He has
captured the violence of the rear and the powerful musculature
of the animal's hind legs.

Fig 10: Despite that the fact the the rider is leaning to the
side in this sketch. Leonardo knows perfectly where to place their
weight and centres of gravity so that the horse and rider are in
harmony and there is no irksome feeling that they might topple over.

It is clear from the vast amount of attention that Leonardo paid to his animal subjects that he had a great interest in them as subjects and he wanted to understand them in detail. The images produced by this painstaking staking study and enquiry are vital and alive.

Albrecht Durer:

I refer the reader back to my previous research point - 'Mastery of Detailed Drawing' where images of engravings especially of horses can be seen. There are also watercolours of bird plumage and of a hare. The close observation of the texture of the plumage of the bird and of the fur of the hare result in a particularly life-like appearance. 

As well as being interested in the proportions of the human figure Durer also worked on the construction of the equine figure and may have been influenced in this by earlier work by Leonardo da Vinci.  This work clearly paid dividends in this engraving. (5)

Illustrated here are two engravings concerned with this enquiry. The Great Horse and The Small Horse.

Fig 11: The Great Horse 

Fig 12: The Small Horse

To my untrained eye, the small horse is the more successful of these two in terms of Durer's aims of perfect proportions. Interpretation of the Great Horse is complicated by the foreshortening caused by the orientation of its body. However, this horse's legs seem somewhat short and also thin compared to the massive muscular body portrayed. 

A comment I would make on comparing the depictions of horses by Da Vinci and Durer is that Durer's engravings seem more formal and objective - almost more scientific in their presentation compared to the vitality and violence of the rapid gestural drawing of the rearing horse by Da Vinci. Even in the lovely textural watercolours by Durer he seems to look at the animals as objects to be accurately drawn. With Da Vinci I get more of a sense that he was engaged with the animals as animals. With their spirit and their characteristic ways of moving and behaving.

While I was looking for works by Durer - I came across depictions of animals by another Northern European artist Hans Hoffman who worked a little later than Durer in the renaissance. I looked at some of his work on the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History on The Met Museum Website(6). The thing that delights me about these images is not only the exquisite rendering of the textures but also the animated light in the animal's eyes - these animals are clearly alive - not dissection specimens! Therefore in the renaissance two changes have occurred. We have moved from the depiction of animals without great attention to their individual features for their symbolic value, through scientific, objective depiction of animals with anatomical details and ideal proportions, to some degree of subjective representation of the individuality and character of animals.

Fig 13: Hans Hoffmann: Hedgehog

Fig 14: Hans Hoffman: Wild Boar Piglet

References:

(1) Johnson, G, A: Renaissance Art: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press: Kindle Edition.
(2) Leonardo da Vinci : Notebooks  Oxford World's Classics- Selected by Irma A Richter - Edited with an introduction by Thereza Wells) (Kindle Edition 2008) Oxford University Press
(3) Leonardo Da Vinci unleashed : the animal rights activist within the artist. The Guardian Jonathan Jones On Art Blog 2013
(4) Science in the Art of the Italian Renaissance II: Leonardo Da Vinci's Representation of Animals in His Works. Douglas D. Kane Ohio Journal of Science 102(5): 113 - 115, 2002
(Ohio State University Knowledge Bank)
(5) Wolf, N : 'Albrecht Durer 1471-1528 The Genius of the German Renaissance' Taschen 2007
(6) http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2005.347