Plate 27: A Cross Fox, a Hyena/Baboon, a "Sea Wolf," and a Gulon (Wolverine?) c. 1575 - 1580

Joris Hoefnagel made this miniature watercolor and gouache on paper, around the turn of the 17th century. It assembles images of various animals within an oval frame and this curious collection invites us to consider the public role of natural history illustration at this time. The selection of animals here, some real and some imagined, speaks to a culture grappling with new global knowledge. Hoefnagel was Flemish, and his work reflects the influence of the Habsburg court, a major center of artistic patronage and scientific exploration. The detailed rendering of each animal reflects the influence of empirical observation. Yet, the animals are also presented as curiosities, visual commodities for a courtly audience keen to display its global reach and intellectual prowess. Historians of science and art have shown how such images served as important tools of knowledge production. They were used to classify and understand the natural world, but also to assert European dominance over newly encountered lands and peoples. Further research into Hoefnagel's sources and the contexts in which his work circulated would reveal how these images shaped early modern European understandings of the natural world.