Thaumalea Picta (Golden Pheasant) 1870 - 1872

Daniel Giraud Elliot rendered this ‘Thaumalea Picta,’ or Golden Pheasant, in a chromolithograph, capturing the bird’s striking plumage. Observe how the male pheasant parades his gilded crest and flamboyant feathers, emblems of virility and allure. Such displays echo through art history; consider the peacock, Juno’s symbol, flaunting its iridescent train. This instinctual need to impress can be traced back through our collective memory, influencing everything from fashion to heraldry. The golden pheasant, like the peacock, becomes a vessel for expressing status and identity. Yet, there’s a tension here: is it pride or vulnerability? For in making a spectacle of oneself, one also risks exposure, a primal fear that resonates in our collective unconscious. Thus, the pheasant, immortalized in print, transcends mere ornithology. It resurfaces as a potent reminder of the cyclical dance between display and concealment, power and fragility.