12 animals in world art

The main characters of the book are twelve animals of the land, air, and sea: from the mighty whale to the graceful white-winged crane, from the flexible cheetah to the shy giraffe — together they pave an uninterrupted path through... the entire history of art: from the late ancient mosaics of Aquileia, laid at the dawn of Christianity in the 4th century, to the vibrant performances of Joseph Beuys. The book also tells the story of Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Katsushika Hokusai, Eugène Delacroix, and many others. The aim of this book is to show that the presence of animals is essential not only for ecosystems and the natural world but also for the deepest and most fundamental aspects of human culture and art.