Subjugated Animals by Nathaniel Wolloch

Author:Nathaniel Wolloch
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781591029632
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2017-06-14T00:00:00+00:00

Our discussion has gradually progressed from philosophical, predominantly anti-animal positions, through popular-science viewpoints, slightly less anti-animal, and then to pre-eminently pro-animal literary depictions of animals. However, assuming that the early modern artistic view of animals was indeed pro-animal in its basic nature, this discussion cannot be complete without an examination of a very important development, the rise of animal iconography, and particularly the depiction of animals in seventeenth-century Netherlandish, i.e. Dutch and Flemish, painting.1 The study of early modern artistic attitudes toward animals has to take cognizance not just of literary depictions of them, but also of this important, painterly type of animal depiction.

I have tried to articulate here a detailed interpretation of artistic portrayals of animals as historically definable philosophical views. I am well aware of the methodological difficulties this entails. Yet I also think that historians of attitudes toward animals have traditionally ignored this type of artistic evidence, to the detriment of this field of inquiry. In my opinion it is important to attempt some sort of consideration of this material, since otherwise the history of attitudes toward animals would never be able to construct a truly broad overview of this subject.

The main methodological problem the study of art poses is the need to discuss essentially non-verbal, visual data, in verbal terms. From the historiographical point of view, as distinct from aesthetic discussions of art, it seems reasonable to assume that certain phenomena depicted or reflected in art works, should be definable in strictly verbal terms. This holds true particularly for a study of iconographical issues. Research of this type is not commonplace in historical research, although it has become much more customary in recent years.2 The present discussion is of course influenced by the way art historians treat animal painting. However, it is not an art historical discussion per se, but rather an historical study of how paintings of animals might help to elucidate the development of general cultural attitudes toward them. Paintings are not considered here as simply a secondary type of phenomenon adjunct to developments in the realms of philosophy, science and literature. They are examined as exemplifying a particular, visual and artistic, type of attitude toward animals.

There are various historical studies of early modern attitudes toward animals, but these have generally failed to seriously discuss animal iconography.3 Similarly, one can find various art-historical discussions of early modern animal iconography which do not make ample use of historical data regarding the development of attitudes toward animals, or, if they do, still center mainly on artistic issues.4 This situation generally holds true also for specific studies of early modern Netherlandish animal painting.5 The present chapter therefore offers an interpretation of seventeenth-century Netherlandish animal painting, specifically within the context of the history of attitudes toward animals.6

The emergence of animal painting as an independent genre in early modern art played an important role in the development of attitudes toward animals. From the end of the sixteenth century, and mainly during the seventeenth century, animal iconography became a new

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