An Image of an Animal

 

The image displayed here is that of a small bird being held in a persons hand. It is displayed as a kind of poster inside a frame among the halls of Irvine Hall on west green. This is also very clearly a photograph which is a much more modern form of art that would still technically be an image on an animal.

The first examples of animal imagery would have been way back in Neolithic times. As displayed with this example of "Wall Painting with Horses, Rhinoceroses, and Aurochs". From about 32,000-30,000 BCE, found in Chauvet cave in France. These may be simple cave paintings made from any kind of pigment they could find, but they are still very clearly animals. The exact reason why these paintings were made is still very unclear because of the lack of any other kind of records. However, the methods used to create these paintings are a bit more clear. It is likely that the paintings were done literally with the hand of the painter and the pigments were chewed up in the mouth and spat directly on the wall. A very different method of capturing animal imagery than the one found in Irvine Hall.

-Jackson Thomas