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Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Indoor Meeting - Birds in Art by Glenn Duggan

To present a history of bird art - for that is what our speaker set out to do - in an evening lecture is a tall order, encapsulating as it does ornithological artistry from the cave paintings of 30,000BC to the work of present day painters. Nevertheless, Glenn took us on a metaphorical journey from the etching of a Scops owl found in the Chauvet caves, France to contemporary artists such as Elizabeth Butterworth and William T Cooper (the recognition of the Scops owl,incidentally, providing historians with a species hitherto unknown to exist at this time). On the way we learnt of the religious significance of the bird art of ancient Egypt; we saw how birds in medieval art were displayed for their aesthetic charm (especially the goldcrest whose red head marking was thought to represent the blood of the crucified Christ); and we noted the educational use of bird pictures used to illustrate scientific manuscripts of the 17th and 18th centuries. We also saw photographic examples of the work of famous 19th century bird painters such as John Gould, John James Audubon, Edward Lear and Joseph Wolf. The lovely wood engravings of Thomas Bewick were included as were bird paintings by Turner and Rembrandt. It was interesting also to follow the technical change from the flat pictures of ancient Egypt which lacked depth and perspective to later styles (often copied from stuffed specimens) showing birds in the round. Other well known bird artists such as Tunnicliffe, Thorburn and Alexander Wilson were all mentioned, as was Charles Darwin (though not as an artist but for his association with John Gould who identified some of the finches brought back from the Galapagos islands). Finally, for anyone who thinks it a dying art in this age of the digital camera, Glenn emphasised that a look at any respectable bird guide book will show that the means of identification can only be properly illustrated by employing wildlife artists.

Brian Shreeve