From Ukraine to Gaza
Created from crushed white chalk, the Uffington White Horse is a prehistoric hill figure set on a hill in Oxfordshire, England. It's at least 3,000 years old.
These earthenware lions were discovered at Kerkouane in Tunisia, and have been dated back to the 3rd century BCE. Kerkouane was a Punic city in north-eastern Tunisia. It was abandoned circa 250 BCE during the First Punic War.
Pictured is the Lioness of Baena. Part of a 5th-century BCE funerary monument, the limestone piece was unearthed from the Minguillar Hill archaeology site near Baena in Cordoba province, Andalusia, Spain. It can be admired in the Museo Histórico y Arqueológico Municipal de Baena.
A prancing horse graces an Egyptian vase, dated back to the Eighteenth Dynasty. It's on display in Berlin's Pergamon Museum.
A tortoise and snake on a plinth, an ornamental piece dated back to 11th-century China and the Northern Song dynasty. The tortoise in the coils of a serpent represents the Dark Warrior, symbol of the north in Chinese mythology.
A mighty eagle statue, wings spread, curls its talons over the facade of 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
One of the huge stone elephants set along the Spirit Way, the approach to the Ming dynasty tombs, near Nanjing, China. The mausoleum complex dates back to the 15th century CE.
Worn smooth over the centuries, this gold figurine of a bull is Scythian in origin and is dated back to the 3rd millennium BCE. It's on display at the State Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Ancient Scythia today encompasses eastern Russia, and parts of Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
A statue of a black cat called Kaspar sits on a private dining table at the Savoy Hotel in London. Kaspar was carved in the 1920s from a single piece of wood by British architect and designer Basil Ionides (1884–1950).
The beautiful peacock window at the Pujari Math, a former Hindu monastery at Bhaktapur, in Nepal. Created in the 15th century, it's widely considered the finest carved window in the Kathmandu Valley.
A carved wooden relief depicting Orisha, a divinity figure of Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion. It's on display at the Afro-Brazilian Museum in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
This unusual frog purse was fashioned out of silk, satin, and silver thread in the first half of the 17th century. The design also incorporates a scent sachet. Hop along to the Museum of London for a closer look.
France's Cave of Niaux contains galleries of carefully drawn and vivid wall paintings, executed in a black-outlined style typical of the classic Magdalenian period. This extraordinary artwork was created between 17,000 and 11,000 BCE, and includes depictions of bison.
Artist Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) titled this work 'Still Life with Three Puppies,' which he painted on a panel using oils in 1888. It's on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
German artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) found inspiration in countryside wildlife to produce his 'Study of a Hare,' painted in 1502.
Fish and sealife in general provided the Romans with much inspiration in producing mosaics and wall murals to decorate the interiors of private dwellings and public publics. This detail is dated back to the 1st century BCE and is part of a larger floor mosaic exhibited in the Museo Nazionale Romano in Rome, Italy.
Entitled 'The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living,' this preserved tiger shark submerged in formaldehyde in a glass-panel display case was created in 1991 by British contemporary artist Damien Hurst. It's considered an iconic work of British art in the 1990s, and has become a symbol of the Britart movement worldwide.
Jeff Koons' 'Puppy' sits patiently outside the Guggenheim Museum at night in Bilbao, Spain. The big little terrier is made from 38,000 vibrant plants, including petunias, marigolds, and begonias.
British rock band Pink Floyd employed the services of a helium-filled pig to illustrate the front cover of their 1977 album 'Animals.' The flying pig later worked its way into the band's stage show.
Great things come in small sizes, as this miniature polar bear in rock crystal and rubies demonstrates. It was made by Russian jeweler Carl Fabergé (1846–1920) in 1890, and is as scarce and priceless as the species itself.
French glass designer René Lalique (1860–1945) crafted this bizarre serpent pectoral in the late 19th century. It's on display at the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Portugal.
This amazing 17th-century wood-carved panel depicting the celebrated monkey trinity—Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, See no Evil—is situated in the stable for the sacred horse at the Nikkō Tōshō-gū shrine in Japan.
The delicate art of leaf-cutting is exemplified by this monkey outline created by an enterprising Chinese cartoon artist in Qingdao. It was made to celebrate the Year of the Monkey.
The reverse of a 6th-century BCE Athenian tetradrachm, showing the owl of Athens. The head of Athena is featured on the coin's face. This was the most widely used coin in the Greek world before the time of Alexander the Great.
The familiar outline of a whale's tail fin, this one made from carved and polished wood, helps promote a whale-watching cruise operation based out of Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge in British Columbia, Canada.
Sources (Ultimate Classic Rock) (The Guardian)
A pelican feeding its young is the subject of this stained glass window illuminating the interior of Bedingfield Church in Suffolk, England. The panel dates back to 1878.
An eagle owl peers down from its perch at the page head of this exquisite 13th-century illuminated French manuscript, created in tempera colors and gold leaf on parchment.
The outline of four octopuses embossed in gold decorate this cup lid. The vessel was unearthed at Dendra near Midea in Greece, and is dated back to the 16th century BCE. It's on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Pop artist Andy Warhol (1928–1987) delved into the realm of domesticated cloven-hooved herbivores with his 'Cow' screen print, made in 1966.
Wildlife in all its glorious forms has been depicted in art by humanity for millennia. So, too, have numerous domesticated creatures. Whether fashioned by famous artists or anonymous creatives, the way we celebrate animals in paintings, drawings, sculpture, and other media is as astonishingly varied as it is inspiring.
Click through and appreciate the animal kingdom in artform.
Ways the animal kingdom is celebrated in artform
Animals immortalized in paintings, sculpture, and other artistic media
LIFESTYLE Animals
Wildlife in all its glorious forms has been depicted in art by humanity for millennia. So, too, have numerous domesticated creatures. Whether fashioned by famous artists or anonymous creatives, the way we celebrate animals in paintings, drawings, sculpture, and other media is as astonishingly varied as it is inspiring.
Click through and appreciate the animal kingdom in artform.