Plate 47: A Hare, "Jackalope," a Rabbit, and a Spotted Squirrel c. 1575 - 1580

Joris Hoefnagel made this watercolor and gouache on vellum around 1575-1580. It depicts various small mammals, including a so-called "Jackalope", arranged along a low branch. Hoefnagel was court artist to Habsburg Emperor Rudolf II. Rudolf’s court was the center of a humanist intellectual circle, where natural philosophy and the study of the natural world were closely linked. Here, Hoefnagel’s meticulous rendering reflects a humanist drive for empirical knowledge. But it also participates in a larger culture of collecting that included Cabinets of Curiosities that housed natural specimens alongside man-made objects. The natural world was closely linked to the politics of the Habsburg court. Rudolf saw himself as a patron of nature, and so his collections were simultaneously emblems of his own power and microcosms of his ideal vision of earthly harmony. As historians, we might consider the role that humanist philosophy and the institution of the court played in the production of this image. We can analyze the ways that art was used to reflect and reinforce specific ideological positions.