Beached Whale Images in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp - Symbols of Hu...

Beached Whale Images in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp: Symbols of Humanity’s Dominion over the Earth

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English | 2026 | ISBN: 904856624X | 198 pages | True PDF,EPUB | 79.41 MB

This book examines a small group of sixteenth-century Antwerp artworks depicting the butchering of beached whales, revealing how these images represent a pivotal moment in European attitudes toward nature. It argues that these "cetaceous units"—iconographic compounds showing humans dominating marine mammals—served as powerful symbols of humanity's relationship with the ocean and the natural world more broadly, marking a transition from medieval moralizing approaches to early modern empirical investigation.

The study provides a detailed iconographical analysis of works by artists such as Herri met de Bles, Master J. Kock, Anton van den Wyngaerde, and Hendrick Goltzius. It traces the evolution of whale imagery from ancient Roman sources through medieval bestiaries to Renaissance naturalist texts, examining how flensing scenes reflected contemporary whaling practices while symbolizing Christian themes and political authority. The study incorporates ecocritical methodology to nstrate how these images justified European exploitation of natural resources and established visual precedents for later scientific illustration.