An Animal-Focused Account of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

As hard as it may be to believe, I do actually have other interests besides animals. As someone greatly interested in art and its history, I decided to take a day trip to the Philidelphia Museum of Art to explore its collections and take copious amounts of photos. There’s so much I could talk about but, in keeping with the theme of Generalist Scavenger, I decided to do an animal-focused recap of my experience at the museum and some brief discussion on things I found interesting.

The Philly Museum of Art is an unmistakable building, popularized by its feature in the film “Rocky.” Naturally, I posed at the top of the stairs. Image by Donovan Snell.

To start, I was really intrigued by the number of donkeys I saw that day. So many pieces seemed to depict them! In many pieces, the donkey (Equus africanus asinus) seemed to have a strong connection to servitude and, to me, appeared to be a symbol of poverty and the lower class. Modern attitudes that most have towards donkeys today can be traced back to two main ancient sources; Greco-Roman literature, in particular Apuleius’s The Golden Ass, and the Bible, which features many different stories containing donkeys. Overall, Greco-Roman literature depicts the donkey in a more negative way whereas, with the rise of Christianity, Biblical accounts of donkeys came to make them symbols of humility and servitude.

Felipe Benito Archuleta’s “Donkey,” made in 1981. This piece was part of a series Archuleta did of cottonwood sculptures of animals, often with exaggerated features to make the animal look more aggressive. To me, however, the donkey specifically looks much calmer and more realistic than his other works. Image by Donovan Snell.

Though not as cited, the donkey’s connection to the lower class was firmly established in The Golden Ass, where Lucius, the main character who is turned into a donkey, is essentially treated as a slave by his several “owners” throughout the novel. This is not an unexpected connection. During the Roman times when Apuleius wrote his novel, lower-class people (both poor citizens and slaves) probably spent a lot of time alongside donkeys. The two would have done the same kind of work and were largely treated the same by their “owners.” Throughout European history, The Golden Ass has remained influential regarding ideas about the ass, who were often associated with negative qualities such as stupidity and stubbornness. Shakespeare in particular firmly placed the donkey in a negative light by using the word “ass” as a derogatory term, still in use today. That being said, the donkey has still continued to be an important character in Christianity, in particular, gaining significance as the transportation of Jesus into Jerusalem. As always, there’s so much more to say but to keep this article on the shorter side, I’ll end things there.

English painter George Henry Harlow’s “Portrait of the Leader Children.” A painter during English Romanticism, Harlow was particularly famous for his portraits. I was surprised to learn this, as, to me, the donkey is the most detailed and strongest aspect of this piece. Perhaps this indicates some special importance placed on him. The title also alludes to something perhaps religious. Image by Donovan Snell

The museum had a small but really interesting mini-exhibit on Augustus the Strong, a ruler of Saxony during the early 1700s, and his collection of porcelain animals, a story I had heard nothing about before (always cool to learn something new!). According to my quick Googling, Augustus was the patron of an effort to learn the secret of manufacturing porcelain. The project was successful, partially due to the coercion of alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger, and Augustus quickly became obsessed with the medium. Using this newfound skill, hundreds of life-size animals were created in his Messian factory. Augustus wanted the sculptures for his Japanese-themed temple in the nearby city of Dresden, Germany. The sculptures really capture details of the animals very well, in part due to the fact that the artists could base their creations on real life. Augustus had a relatively large personal collection of animals at the temple. Like many famous Greek sculptures, these porcelain animals were originally painted, but on almost all of them, the paint has faded entirely.

Two of Augustus the Strong’s porcelain animal sculptures, made in 1732. While goats may not seem super exotic, other statues from the temple depict more exotic wildlife. Even these were likely based on life, as Augustus captured and transported many animals during his ventures to Africa. Note the cracks in the porcelain, showing that the practice was still not quite perfect. Image by Donovan Snell

In a similar vein, the intense attention to realism and precise detailing of the animals in some of the paintings cannot be overstated. While portraits, landscapes, and still lifes were definitely the most represented subjects, it is undeniable that many artists were very knowledgeable about animal anatomy and movement.

“Hound Coursing a Stag” by George Stubbs, depicting a hunting dog of some kind (Canis domesticus) chasing after a red deer (Cervus elaphus). A Romantic painter, Stubbs specialized in depicting animals, especially horses. Dramatic scenes of predator and prey, such as this one, aren’t uncommon in his works. Image by Donovan Snell

Through a bit of research into some of the artists, it seems that many paintings of animals in the museum, particularly those I found striking, are from artists who specialized in painting them. It seems that, like many artists today, artists of the past who were used to people or objects struggled with animals. This seems perfectly understandable to me; with how much animals move about and all of the detail present in the musculature and skin coverings and patterns, it seems impossible to depict them before the invention of photography.

Another painting of a hunting dog, “Barbaro After the Hunt” is an 1858 piece by French painter Marie-Rosalie Bonheur. Bonheur was known for her paintings of dogs and particularly for her ability to depict their emotions. Barbaro here is no exception. Image by Donovan Snell.

This painting was very hard to photograph but here’s the best I got. An enormous painting, the effort and time certainly paid off. Image by Donovan Snell.

One of the most memorable works in the museum was surely Peter Paul Rubens’s “Prometheus Bound.” It depicts the scene from classical mythology of Prometheus, chained for his crime of providing humans with fire, cursed to have an eagle rip out his liver every day for the rest of time, a story I’m sure most are familiar with.

“Prometheus Bound” was started in 1611 but only finished in 1618. The sheer size of it, something very difficult to capture in a photo, explains that, but there is also the fact that the eagle was painted by a separate artist from the rest of the painting. While most of the scene is from Rubens, the eagle, likely a golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) was painted by Frans Snyders, both of whom are Flemish artists. After reading this on the sign next to the painting, I did notice that the eagle looked a bit different from the rest of the painting, appearing a bit darker and seeming to “stand out” compared to the rest of the scene. Frans Snyders was a relatively famous painter of animals and apparently regularly collaborated with Rubens as well as other artists who needed help depicting wildlife. I have no idea how common this was in art as a whole during this time, but it is tantalizingly fascinating to know. I became really interested in this painting after that fact- I never really considered that artists would contact animal specialists for paintings that required it.

“Prometheus Bound” and the story of Prometheus itself also show a general human interest, both ancient and modern, in stories about eagles and other large birds killing and eating humans. A whole can of worms that simply can’t be unpacked here, I think there’s some reason to believe that this may be a cultural memory from prehistory. Looking at you, Taung child.

Sir Edwin Landseer’s two paintings, titled “Day” and “Night,” also really intrigued me. They were big, but not quite as large as “Prometheus Bound,” a depict the same environment but at different times. The chronologically first one shows two male red deer sparring with each other. Flash forward to the daytime, where the two have killed each other, attracting the attention of a scavenging red fox (Vulpes vulpes) as well as a bird of some kind, likely a common raven (Corvus corax). Apparently, these paintings were created during a period in Landseer’s career when he rejected commission pieces, believing that they were too constraining and boring. He took to painting whatever he wanted, including but not limited to these scenes of the red deer. Perhaps the paintings have symbolic importance relating to this, depicting something strong and proud that inevitably fails.

A tad hard to see in my photo, Landseer’s paintings of a pair of deer fighting under moonlight ends with tragedy for both members. But, on the bright side, the fox will be having quite the feast. Image by Donovan Snell.

Whatever the meaning behind these paintings is, it has some interesting real-world basis. There are numerous accounts of deer, in particular the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) of the Americas, whose antlers became locked during sparring, leading to the death of one or both members. There is even one known account in the white-tailed deer of three bucks locking antlers, found dead in a body of water where they likely became exhausted and drowned.

These three white-tailed deer found locked together in steam in Ohio are even more exceptional than Landseer’s scene. Antlers are meant more for display than combat, as they are quite fragile and, as seen here, occasionally prone to getting stuck. Image by Brien Burke.

Occurrences such as this are known in other artiodactyls as well, such as a case of two male greater kudus (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) whose horns became locked, resulting in the death of both. Similar to Landseer’s painting, there was evidence that this event attracted the attention of scavengers, with one of the hind limbs of the kudu having been found stashed in a nearby tree, likely by a leopard. Both carcasses also showed bite marks indicative of hyenas.

A tragic event for both parties. Image by Rex Masupe.

Another scene with interesting real-world implications was Chinese artist Mansheng Wang’s 2022 piece “Tiger and Deer Drinking Together,” a very apt title. It is one of the few modern works featured in this article and was part of a really fascinating temporary exhibit on the portrayal of nature in Chinese art. While the whole display has so much to talk about, this piece in particular really caught my eye.

A close-up of the tiger and deer from Wansheng’s piece. The entire piece is much larger and the tiger and deer are difficult to see in a photo of the whole thing, so I went with a close-up of our subjects. Image by Donovan Snell.

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is drinking alongside a deer, likely a sika deer (Cervus nippon), at a watering hole. As many readers may know, such interactions aren’t as abnormal as they may appear. Predators are not constantly on the hunt and, in fact, often don’t pay any mind to other animals when they aren’t hungry. Prey animals similarly will cautiously tolerate or perhaps even be curious of predators when they are not hunting. While a sika would probably not recline right next to a tiger, it still stands to reason that a scene such as this is not impossible. It reminded me of the highly publicized story of Amur, a tiger at a Russian wildlife park who became very bonded to a goat named Timur. Unfortunately, stories like this haven’t been studied intensely and there’s probably much to learn about predator-prey interactions.

I also like the fact that, in the painting, the deer and the tiger were not really the focus of the image and took up very little of the frame. In most European art of animals, such as many pieces shown in this article, the animals themselves take center stage, but in this piece at least, the animals kind of just blend into the natural scene.

Probably the most famous animal-related piece at the museum is Edward Hicks’s “Noah’s Ark” painting from 1846.

Edward Hicks’s famous “Noah’s Ark” painting. I’m sure at least some readers will have seen this widely-circulated image at least a few times. Image by Donovan Snell.

Personally not my favorite painting in the world, even of the specific subject matter, it was still cool to see such a widely-used image in person.

Overall, my experience at the museum was very positive. It wasn’t my first time going, but much of what I remembered was new and fresh, which was greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, during my visit, good portions of the museum were closed for renovations, and I didn’t quite get to everything. I still enjoyed my extended time at the museum and will surely be back to see what I wasn’t able to this trip.

Sources

Bough, Jill. The Mirror Has Two Faces: Contradictory Reflections of Donkeys in Western Literature from Lucius to Balthazar. Animals, 2011. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4552212/

“Collection Database.” Philadelphia Museum of Art, accessed July 25, 2023. https://philamuseum.org/search/collections

“The Japanese Palace of Augustus the Strong: Royal Ambition and Collecting Traditions in Dresden.” The Frick Collection, 2008. https://www.frick.org/sites/default/files/archivedsite/exhibitions/meissen/augustus_the_strong.htm

“Frans Snijders.” Baroque in the Southern Netherlands, accessed July 25, 2023. https://barokinvlaanderen.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/en/artist/frans-snijders

Elbein, Asher. “When Antlers Tangle, Sometimes Both Animals Lose.” New York Times, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/21/science/locked-horns-antlers-deer-elk.html

“In photos: Male Kudus Lock Horns in a Fatal Battle.” Earth Touch News, 2015. https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/animal-behaviour/in-photos-male-kudus-lock-horns-in-a-fatal-battle/

“Goat and Tiger’s Unlikely Friendship.” BBC, 2016. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-35204936