Art, Ethics and the Human-Animal Relationship (The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series)

This book examines the works of major artists between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, as important barometers of individual and collective values toward non-human life. Once viewed as merely representational, these works can also be read as tangential or morally instrumental by way of formal analysis and critical theories. Chapter Two demonstrates the discrimination toward large and small felines in Genesis and The Book of Revelation. Chapter Three explores the cruel capture of free roaming animals and how artists depicted their furs, feathers and shells in costume as symbols of virtue and vice. Chapter Four identifies speciest beliefs between donkeys and horses. Chapter Five explores the altered Dutch kitchen spaces and disguised food animals in various culinary constructs in still life painting. Chapter Six explores the animal substances embedded in pigments. Chapter Seven examines animals in absentia-in the crafting of brushes. The book concludes with the fish paintings ofWilliam Merritt Chase whose glazing techniques demonstrate an artistic approach that honors fishes as sentient beings. Series Editors’ Preface Acknowledgments Contents About the Author List of Figures 1 Introduction Bibliography 2 A New Breed: The Cat as Scapegoat in Edenic and Utopian Imagery Cats Part I: Book of Genesis Albrecht Dürer German, Nuremberg (1471–1528) Jan Brueghel the Elder, Flemish Baroque Master (1568–1625) Jan Brueghel the Younger, Flemish Baroque Master (1601–1678) Lucas Cranach the Elder, German Renaissance (1472–1553) Hieronymus Bosch, Dutch/Netherlandish (1450–1516) Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish (1577–1640) Paul De Vos, Flemish Baroque (1596–1678) Black Cats Part II: Book of Revelation Leonardo da Vinci, High Renaissance (1452–1519) Cornelis Cort, Dutch Engraver, 1533–1578 (After Federico Barrocci, Italian Renaissance 1535–1612) Rembrandt van Rijn, Baroque Dutch (1606–1669) The New World Edward Hicks, American (1780–1849) Rufus Hathaway, American (1770–1822) Feline Hides: East of Eden Gerard Hoet, Dutch Artist (1648–1733) Francesco Maffei, Italian Baroque (1605–1660) Frans Pourbus the Elder, Italianate Flemish (1545–1581) Feline Redemption Jean Baptiste-Oudry, French Rococo (1686–1755) Bibliography 3 Virtue and Vice in High Couture Part I: Furs (Weasels and Beavers) Weasel Beaver Part II: Feathers (Ostrich) Part III: Shells (Tortoise) Capture Shell Bibliography 4 Transformational Approaches: Equine Speciesism Semiotics in Equine Speciesism The Paintings Bibliography 5 Looking Askance: The Changing Shape of “Meat” in Dutch Still Life Painting Part I: Butcher Tables Part II: Disguised Tables Predators Culinary Taxidermy Disguises/Pudding Pot Pies 1620–1640 Products: Milk and Cheese Unrecognizable “Meat” and Humble Kitchen Scenes Bibliography 6 Historical Processes: Embodied/Embedded Part I: Francisco de Zurbarán, Agnus Dei, c. 1635 The Lamb to the Slaughter The Canvas The Hidden “Ground (s)”34 Painterly Pigments56 Animal Waste in “Whites” The “Blacks” of Bones The Bladder’s “Greens” Part II: Balthasar van der Ast, Still-Life of Flowers, Shells, and Insects, 1635 The Mollusk The “Purples” The Shells Sheep and Cow Urine Bibliography 7 Absent Referents: Bristly Brushes Swine Squirrels The Quills Bibliography 8 Conclusion: Darkness to Light Bibliography Author Index Subject Index