Behold, a tortoise!

The ball was then interrupted by a great vocal and instrumental concert.

J. J. Grandville – La Vie Privee des Animaux

Good evening then, reader friend… till tomorrow

J. J. Grandville, La Vie Privée des Animaux

Ruggiero Delivering Angelica by Arnold Böcklin (1873). Just look at that orc! It’s got to be the prettiest fine art dragon ever painted. I love how it seems unfazed by the knight trotting up, and even Angelica seems awfully casual about being held hostage by a dragon.

That said, if you liked this don’t see the sequel painting with the dragon handily beheaded.

😦

You will never be as pretty – or have as pretty a name – as the radiolarian Gorgonetta mirabilis, the “amazing little gorgon”.

Image from HMS Challenger’s report on radiolaria, found on Wikimedia.

The Heraldic Zoo. Grandville, Un Autre Monde.

Arent van Bolten, Monster.

British Museum, London.

Agostino Veneziano, Dragon and Butterfly.

The Warburg Institute, London.

What do you think this creature is? Yes, it’s a real animal that got lost in translation.

From Ulyssis Aldrovandi’s Natural History.