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

Re: Evolution of the elephant depiction throughout the middle ages

#41

Post by aasasd » Fri, Jan 28, 2022, 9:58 PM UTC

The author also has a page with text descriptions for various animals in a similar vein: https://www.uliwestphal.de/retrozoology/index.html

> The octopus as a rule does not live the year out. It has a natural tendency to run off into liquid; for, if beaten and squeezed, it keeps losing substance and at last disappears.

Well, can't say that I won't do about the same if beaten and squeezed.

Also, another animal with plenty of wild depictions is the tiger. East-Asian paintings especially walk between hilarious and cool, and it's often clear that the artists didn't particularly want to see a real tiger close.

Itō Jakuchū: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/14/63/f8/1463f891232e00f9165d05809...

Marked as ‘Meiji’, so fairly recent, but I like it: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/9e/d1/6a/9ed16aad46e17fcbe521d68e0...

Re: Evolution of the elephant depiction throughout the middle ages

#42

Post by irrational » Sat, Jan 29, 2022, 4:06 AM UTC

What was going on in the mid to late 1400s? They had some crazy psychedlic drawings of elephants. Even more so than most earlier times. Though, maybe that is the answer. Maybe people in earlier times had actually seen a Roman elephant. Then maybe people in later times had actually seen a real elephant. Then in the middle (1400s) you have people that are hundreds of years removed from anyone actually seeing one.

Re: Evolution of the elephant depiction throughout the middle ages

#43

Post by alfiedotwtf » Sat, Jan 29, 2022, 4:09 AM 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!

How long is the Emporer's nose? https://imaginatorium.org/stuff/nose.htm

Re: Evolution of the elephant depiction throughout the middle ages

#44

Post by blululu » Sun, Jan 30, 2022, 2:06 AM UTC

capableweb wrote: post #32

blululu wrote: post #6

Really a cool project. Thinking about how to describe and elephant: like a giant ox but with big ears a long protruding nose and tusks (not not for female Asian elephants). Can easily see how that game of telephone would go sideways.

Assumes the receiver of the description knows what an ox and tusks looks like.

Yes. I assumed basic knowledge of the fauna of Northern Europe which includes oxen and walruses.