The Use of Animal Symbolism in Art

Animals have been amongst humans since the dawn of time, creating bonds and friendships, food and clothing; they are very impactful on our evolution as a species. Throughout our history humans have been watching them very closely, evaluating each creature as they walk alongside us. Ancient civilisations began to use their traits and characteristics as a way to justify behaviour and analyse the world around us. We have used animals to represent the natural world, symbolising important attributes, becoming incredibly significant in the evolution of humans. They began to create meaningful symbolism to help illustrate concepts to the illiterate and process information through a medium that all would be able to understand.

In this essay, I will be discussing how animals have been portrayed in art, illustration, and symbolism and compare them to how they are portrayed today.

Creationism played an important role in society as it included symbolism that would have been understood to those who were illiterate: In medieval times, a vast majority of people were illiterate which meant that they relied on a visual aid in order to interpret the text. Science was yet to evolve, meaning the public depended on creationism to explain the complex world around them, as that was all they knew. The illustration was used to teach the people of that time about creationism so that all could apply it to their lives.

Animals played an important part in medieval artistry, becoming renowned for their symbolism: A lot of the time, animals would be used to symbolise many different things according to the origin, but most animals were used symbolically as a way to explain the unexplainable, which had a great influence on the creation of myths and legends such as mythical creatures. These creatures were based on the people’s interpretation of the animals, especially since many species would not have been native. Animals hadn’t been documented properly in those times as people relied on an explorer to document the findings of new species, therefore artists had to interpret the illustration based on the explorer's words, which could often be misleading.

In Christianity, animals were used to paint a picture and set a scene, with the use of the hidden symbolic meanings we have now forgotten in our modern society: ‘A seed buried in the ground grows steadily upwards according to its nature into a great tree whose flowering branches are a shelter for nesting birds in spring, and in summer are a provider of welcome shade for animals and med, in autumn the fruits may well be sustenance for many creatures, while the fallen leaves of early winter enrich the soil with humus that other seeds may germinate when spring returns and sap rises’ - This passage shows the detail in which animals are used to describe surroundings with hidden symbolism. Birds in Christianity symbolise the presence of God. Each bird has a different meaning but if we’re speaking about all birds the meaning remains as the presence of God. ‘Life with doves pecking the grapes are closely related images’ this is yet again another symbolic mention of birds.

An animal would symbolise a representation of an animal’s own characteristics: A crow is both a positive and a negative animal. Crows symbolise mischievous and manipulative behaviour, intelligence, higher perspective and are adaptive. But people didn’t know that these characteristics described were accurate representations of their nature since they had never seen one before. 'How are birds peculiar among animals? Their arms are wings, enabling them to rise above the ground and to fly quickly through the air. Birds also have very quick, sharp sight. An eagle or a hawk as he circles about, high in the air, is watching the little objects on the ground far below. How quick a little bird's sight must be, to fly safely through the woods, in and out among the branches! And we must not forget the sweet songs of some birds and the bright colours of others, which are their means of sharing with us the delights of their happy life.’ concepts such as the idea that less conscious species corresponds with our emotions and affection making the observation of nature a part of religious practices.

Representations of animals were not accurate as travel wasn’t easy back then, meaning fewer people could collect documentation of the animals. People thought exotic animals were imaginary because they hadn’t seen them, and therefore the realism in the illustrations produced was not accurate because it was based on description rather than visual documentation, a bit like Chinese whispers. The colour palette was limited to the illustrators as many colours had yet to be created, so they used nature to create the pigments which also proved a task to the documentation.

The mythical looking beasts alongside the reputable symbolism each species possessed would go alongside each other to tell a story: Looking back to the Neolithic period, cave paintings were used to tell stories. ‘Most (though not all) experts believe they were painted without any thought of beauty, their purpose is to provide magic help for the hunter. Their realism is more remarkable because the artist had virtually none of the aids available later. Yellow, red and black were his only colours, derived from minerals in the earth, and for a brush, he used his fingers or at best a piece of frayed bark.’

Much medieval mythology mentions feral children. A book that has had been influenced by period yet maintains a modern visual language is ‘The Jungle Book’. This book was produced in 1894 and illustrated by John Lockwood Kipling. It shows how the symbolism is still present in the illustrations and narrative description of the animal characters but has also been forgotten by society. In this book, there is still blatant use of symbolism projected through the animal’s characteristics.

Bagheera is one of the fictional characters in the book. He is the Black Morph of the big cat Jaguar who mentors Mowgli. He reveals to Mowgli his past, which shows his characteristics in more depth. His description connotes medieval symbolism of a Black Morph Jaguar. In the medieval bestiary, a Jaguar is described to be a ‘gentle beast; only the dragon is its enemy’: The ‘enemy’ is referring to another character in the novel – Shere Khan who is the evil Bengal Tiger. It was said that if you meet a black Jaguar, you meet your fears that you have kept hidden. Black Jaguar also symbolises strength and power, which is what Bagheera offers to Mowgli. The name Mowgli actually means ‘feral child’, even though he doesn’t symbolise an animal it evidently shows that symbolism is used in publications.

After the Renaissance period, people were more interested in science and naturalism. With a sudden influx in the interest of education, more people were able to read. Society soon began to reject symbolism in illustrations and replace them with science, as there was no need for them any longer.

Charles Darwin was a naturalist and geologist who revolutionised science with his illustrations of animals. Darwin introduced the evolution theory; this significantly changed the perspectives of those who were still classed as creationists. Darwin’s illustrations were important to those who were uneducated as they were able to notice the truthfulness in the imagery. Even though he is not renowned for his illustrations, he did introduce a new visual language and new expectations of illustrations of animals.

It was not until the 18th century that animals were no longer considered a serious subject for art. It was used for more science purposes used to demonstrate technical skill rather than artwork.

Durer is a German painter who is renowned for animal portraiture. He painted an illustration of squirrels. In comparison to the medieval bestiary depiction of a squirrel, the illustration is a more accurate representation. The colours of Durer’s squirrel are much more realistic as they are similar to the colour of a real-life squirrel. The medieval bestiary’s squirrel illustration uses bright unrealistic colours, which just shows the lack of materials available and the understanding people had in that period. The detail in the squirrel’s tail – the fine lines he’s used to depicting the bushy tail is very different from the bestiary version, which looks more like a tree. The proportion of both creatures is drastically different; with the squirrel shown in proportion to regular acorns and the huge squirrels that seem to be a lot larger than a tree. The faces of the creatures are somewhat similar but the bestiary’s squirrel resembles more of a bat rather than a squirrel.

People at that time who specialised in technical drawings were the people who would travel the world, which meant that they were able to experience and view the animal with their own eyes, rather than stories and descriptions from other world travellers. This created a boom in science as being able to document animals properly greatly improved our understanding of the natural world.

In this day of age, the way in which we used symbolism has been forgotten by society. This is because the majority of the population are now naturalists since we now have a good understanding of science. Animals lost the significance of symbolism in illustration as time has gone on. That doesn’t mean to say symbolism has been completely forgotten, just forgotten by society. However, many illustrations have elements of animal symbolism such as Disney. The Disney version of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ has significant elements of symbolism throughout. The animals featured in the book has elements of Christian symbolism except for not historical Christian symbolism. The bible says, “Preach the gospel to the whole creation” – this means that even animals are considered sacred. Snow white shows this by communicating with the animals and treating them kindly. Snow white is supposed to portray an element of Jesus, the animals being her disciples or followers. There are also elements of patriarchy with the animals and snow white. This yet again shows the animals are the followers of snow white (Jesus). Even though this is not the historical use of symbolism, it is proof that symbolism is still intact, only it has been forgotten as common knowledge.

Nowadays, animals in illustration have shifted and are now used as a way to personify the character, especially in children’s books. They are given human characteristics so that a child can relate to the animals. The personification of animals could be portrayed as symbolism as the animals are used to compare the innocence of the characters, which is the innocence of a child, making it much more relatable. However, symbolism in illustrations is no longer needed to tell the story like it once was. Education is much more widely available meaning the rate of illiteracy has declined.

Remembering that illustrations have no or little symbolism anymore, there are lots of illustrations accompanying text in children’s books – the younger the child the more illustrations there will be in a book aimed to that age group. Obviously, a child is less likely to be able to read the younger it is, therefore there will be more need for illustrations to accompany the text – just like in the Middle Ages. An example of this in a modern-day children’s book ‘Maisy goes to nursery’ by Lucy Cousins. The animals wear human clothes and play with human toys. There is also a lack of text in the book indicating it is for younger children learning to read.

Another not-so-modern example of personification in an illustration is Wind in the Willows. In this book, the woodland characters are depicted in human outfits with very human characteristics to go along with them. The author uses profiles for each character: “Mr Toad: The wealthy scion of Toad Hall who inherited his wealth from his late father. Although good-natured, kind-hearted and not without intelligence, he is also spoiled, conceited, and impulsive. He is prone to obsessions and crazes (such as punting, houseboats, and horse-drawn caravans), each of which in turn he becomes bored with and drops. His motoring craze eventually sees him imprisoned for theft, dangerous driving and gross impertinence to the rural police. Several chapters of the book chronicle his daring escape from prison.” This is an example of one of the character profiles that I got off Wikipedia.

You’re less likely to see illustrations in adult books because you can almost guarantee that an adult nowadays will be able to read. However, symbolism is more likely to be present in an adult book but it just won’t be shown through illustration, only rather in other aid, such as objects described throughout the text. This is yet again more evidence that the more likely you are able to read, the fewer images you will have.

Finally, to conclude my essay; As books became more significant in the modern day of age, people were more likely to be able to read and write means the importance of symbolism in illustration declined. The purpose of animal illustration was then only used to explain things scientifically, visually and logically. However, this remains a massive part of our culture today as we still continue to use animals in art. Animal’s characteristics now have more significance in art and design rather than biased symbolism. I also think that there is still knowledge connoting the representation of animals and symbolism hasn’t been completely forgotten by society, it’s just considered a part of modern-day knowledge. History has shown that the decline in illiteracy and inundation of interest in science and education, there is less need to include symbolism in illustration, instead, illustration has created a new, more open visual language of animals. Visual language in illustration was once devoted to symbolism but now we have a more accurate understanding of animal’s anatomy and a better understanding of science in the world. We are now able to use animals as a way to play with imagery as illustrators and use mythical beasts as a way to poke fun and express our creativity without judgement. We are lacking understanding of symbolism in our society but there are still subtle, subliminal and unforgettable elements of symbolism that we still continue to use, only we don’t see these things as symbolism so much anymore. We have the creative freedom to produce illustrations in a non-partisan way.