Drawn from the Deep:
Fish in Science, Art and the Imagination
Making a drawing or a painting is usually the most efficient and informative way of describing a plant or an animal to a reader. After all, "a picture is worth a thousand words." Through the centuries, the literature of natural history has always been replete with illustrations—both real and fantastical.
Some of these exquisite illustrations are careful and accurate renderings done under the critical supervision of a scientist, while others appear to be the figment of the artist's imagination.
The illustration of fish has always played an important role in the scientific study of fish, or Ichthyology. Whether sketched on board a ship or reconstructed from specimens in a museum collection, fish are difficult subjects to represent accurately because they are fragile, tend to deteriorate, and fade quickly. Sometimes an illustration must be based on several specimens when no single undamaged specimen can represent a species. Unless the specimen is still living, illustration rather than photography has proved to be a better method for capturing a fish's intricate color patterns.
Some of these illustrations, including woodcuts, hand-colored lithographs, engravings and etchings, are presented here. They're drawn from the treasures of the Academy's Ewell Sale Stewart Library and range in date from the 16th to the 19th centuries:
From The Imagination to Science:
The 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries
From the 16th century onward, descriptions and depictions of the natural world began to approach reality. Earlier bestiaries from Classical and Mediaeval times had been a mixture of fact and fiction, recording not only actual creatures but also legendary ones given authenticity by naturalist-philosophers such as Aristotle and Pliny. The new scientific works of the Renaissance demonstrated a healthy skepticism about the mythic beasts, even though their authors continued to include some of them.
- Salviani's Aqvatilivm Animalivm (1554)
- Conrad Gesner's Historiae Animalium (1551-1587)
- Louis Renard's Poissons, Exrevisse et Crabes (1678)
- Gautier d'Agoty's Observations (1752-1755)
- Marcus Bloch's Fische Deuchlands (1782-1784)
Science & Exploration: The 19th Century
At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, scientific discovery experienced a considerable acceleration. The theories put forth by Linnaeus, Darwin, Buffon, La Cépède, and Cuvier became turning points for the study of the natural world.
At the same time, numerous expeditions to various parts of the world were organized, staffed by scientists, naturalists, physicians, and artists, who collected and recorded countless new scientific specimens.
The Academy of Natural Sciences, founded in 1812, became an important center for scientific research and exploration during this period. It was the first organization in the Western Hemisphere to support and publish research rivaling that undertaken in Europe.