Plate 10: A Lion and a Civet Cat c. 1575 - 1580

This watercolor and gouache painting of a lion and a civet cat was made by Joris Hoefnagel around 1575-1600. Hoefnagel was part of a Northern European tradition of natural history illustration that flourished thanks to the sponsorship of wealthy patrons. Here, the lion reclines regally beneath a sign identifying him as being of the “tribe of Judah”, while the civet cat lurks warily in the background. The lion has traditionally been a symbol of power and nobility, and the biblical association with Judah would have been politically charged in an era of intense religious conflict, when the authority of the Church was frequently contested. The depiction of the civet cat might allude to contemporary debates about the natural world. The precise meaning would depend on the patron for whom the work was commissioned and the specific intellectual and political agendas that they wished to promote. To find out more about the conditions under which this painting was produced, we might look at the artist’s correspondence, the records of his patrons, and the intellectual debates of the time.