Evolution of the elephant depiction throughout the middle ages • Hacker News Board

Re: Evolution of the elephant depiction throughout the middle ages

#11

Post by peteradio » Fri, Jan 28, 2022, 4:25 PM UTC

danparsonson wrote: post #8

gehwartzen wrote: post #4

Some of these are pretty wild. Makes me wonder if similar mischaracterized/illustrated of animal depictions were the source for the belief in dragons and other monsters

This one is my personal favourite: https://www.uliwestphal.de/elephas-anthropogenus/soloelephan...

Who drew that one? The 3 year old prince or court jester?

Re: Evolution of the elephant depiction throughout the middle ages

#12

Post by Little_Fish » Fri, Jan 28, 2022, 4:33 PM UTC

This is like the gif where everyone draws a picture on the back of the person in front and the end result is nothing like the original. Chinese whispers in art form!

Re: Evolution of the elephant depiction throughout the middle ages

#13

Post by dvsfish » Fri, Jan 28, 2022, 4:54 PM UTC

Little_Fish wrote: post #12

This is like the gif where everyone draws a picture on the back of the person in front and the end result is nothing like the original. Chinese whispers in art form!

gartic phone!

Re: Evolution of the elephant depiction throughout the middle ages

#14

Post by distribot » Fri, Jan 28, 2022, 5:11 PM UTC

I wish there was context for the pictures. Where they came from, who drew them

Re: Evolution of the elephant depiction throughout the middle ages

#15

Post by sneeds » Fri, Jan 28, 2022, 5:30 PM UTC

this one is just a meme shitpost https://www.uliwestphal.de/elephas-anthropogenus/soloelephan...

Re: Evolution of the elephant depiction throughout the middle ages

#16

Post by menacingly » Fri, Jan 28, 2022, 5:35 PM UTC

Years ago I read a fascinating article (that I cannot locate again) about the wildly inaccurate illustrations of animals available in old books, often drawn by artists who had never seen the animal, but drew one from verbal descriptions by people who had. Something like a visual game of telephone.

Re: Evolution of the elephant depiction throughout the middle ages

#17

Post by nosianu » Fri, Jan 28, 2022, 5:49 PM UTC

peteradio wrote: post #10

This one looks like a dragon: https://www.uliwestphal.de/elephas-anthropogenus/soloelephan...

So I immediately googled "dragophant" as the name that immediately came into my mind after seeing this, and there are quite a few interesting links and images Only a few examples:

- https://i.pinimg.com/originals/77/87/31/778731af0a982a047e7a...

- https://i.redd.it/3c9mii0uc1b51.jpg

- https://www.deviantart.com/tag/dragophant