Hilariously Inaccurate Medieval Art of Animals
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Published 2021-06-18
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Medieval European art of animals often looked… a little different from the real-world species. European texts and illuminated manuscripts from this period are full of hilarious attempts to depict of far-off species, so here’s a breakdown of some of the most inaccurate — and most amusing — examples.
0:00 Intro
0:38 Elephant
0:58 Hippopotamus
1:24 Giraffe
1:42 Hyena
2:07 Tiger
2:40 Ostrich
3:24 Pelican
3:53 Whale
4:17 Dolphin
4:31 Sea Turtle
4:56 Crocodile
5:22 Scorpion
5:45 ???
6:13 Outro
Sources:
Animals in Medieval Art Overview - Melanie Holcomb: www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/best/hd_best.htm
Medieval Elephants: blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2012/10/elephants…
Pelican Myth - Anastasia Pineschi : blogs.getty.edu/iris/the-pelican-self-sacrificing-…
Most images from Wikimedia Commons
♫ Music credit to Hooksounds ♫
#Medieval #History #Art
All Comments (21)
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when the only animals you've ever seen are cats, dogs, horses, and cows- everything is gonna look like a cat, a dog, a horse, or a cow
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Whale: big fish Dolphin: smaller fish Turtle: shield fish Crocodile: fish with legs
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"So you say it lives in water?" "Yes" "Alright, fish it is then"
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A possible reason the turtles would have been depicted as having shells like that is because many Germanic language variations of their names derive from the word for "shield". For instance, in German, Swedish, Dutch and Danish it is known as a "shield-toad". Some artists of the time may have interpreted this name a little bit too literally.
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2000 years later: Hilariously Inaccurate 21st Century Art of Aliens.
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Medieval art in general is like leaving the "artist" enclosed in a room all his life and asking him to paint from descriptions of drunk sailors
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5:43 Me: “Oh that one’s easy. That’s a horse!” ”The Chameleon!” Me: “What the actual heck..”
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5:22 "Finally, at least this one looks more like what a crocodile would" Narrator: "It's a scorpion".
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Animals that existed in medieval Europe: - Dog - Fish - Horse - Cat - Bird
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Traveler: "I saw this animal able to change colors, it was called a chameleon" Monk: "Hm, colorful camel or lion. Got it."
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Despite all the inaccuracies, you gotta admit that those people can make some good drawings. And also I'd love to see a fantasy book or game with those designs
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I find the scorpion particularly hilarious. Surely all they had to do was say "you know crabs? Draw one of them but skinny and long, with a tail"
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I’m convinced the mythical dragon was just a wrong, very wrong depiction of a hummingbird.
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Writer: "I need illustration for this book about tiger." Painter: "Best I can do is dog."
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Imagine being shown only images like these, and hearing the stories that come with them for your whole life only to see and learn about the actual animals. That would either be the scariest experience, or the most relieving experience.
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The turtle one is actually so genius! A turtle looks like two shields with a head and legs sticking out, so obviously a medieval monk will use literal medieval kite shields with a head sticking out. It's funny, but it makes sense.
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I mean to be fair they were all results of people playing the longest game of Telephone on earth, as each animal was just described by one person to the other and so on. Eventually you get to really weird alien creatures thanks to people adding or removing details
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The peculiar thing is that even older Neolithic cave paintings are actually quite good and accurate. We can clearly see deer-like creatures and mammoths in those paintings (at least accurate comparing to real Mammoth Arctic findings).
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Any Exotic Animal on Earth : (Exists) Medieval Artists : "Ayo, what the dog doin ???"
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Monk 1 : "I need to draw a whale for this book, what do they look like?" Monk 2: "I know a guy who knows a guy who talked to an old drunken one-eyed sailor who saw one from a mile away when he was young"
