The paper zoo: a scientific arialysis of the scientific image of animals in the eighteenth century

Abstract

In the eighteenth century, graphical representations taken from «nature» became a real and significant aid to science. Artists began to take part in the great European naturalist voyages to unknown parts of the world arid artistic-scientific illustrations were recognised as instruments for promoting botanical and zoological knowledge. From this arose a systematic and organized «new portrait» of nature, conceived under the prism of the ideals of the Enlightenment. This article is a partial examination of this attempt at rationalization by providing natural history with the graphic resources necessary for its understanding and development.