565
“undoubtedly painted from a stuffed subject.” It appears as a plate in a two-volume
book known as the Museum Kaiser Rudolfs II. And, as history would further
complicate things, “The majority of the subjects in the volumes were stuffed
specimens.”
40
The “Prague beak” poses a problem of who saw which bird; was it
alive, was it dead, what are the anatomical inconsistencies from the Nicolas Visscher
engraving, the Joris Hoefnagel painting (“identified as a dodo” in a National Gallery
of Art, Washington D.C. catalog), the Jan Brueghel the Elder version in his painting
of 1611, “Air,” which, explains Parish, “is very similar to the Van Ravesteyn bird,
indicating that it was either painted with reference to this source (Ziswiler 1996) or
from the Prague specimen itself.”
41
But the problem with Savery’s claim that he had
painted it from “real life” is that the dates don’t appear to work out. “Indeed,” says
Paris, “the Prague dodo may have been already stuffed by the time Savery arrived in
Prague.”
42
This contention was re-affirmed in 2011 by Judith Magee, curator of an
exhibition at London’s Natural History Museum entitled “Images of Nature” in
which new paleontological bearings were brought to bear on the imprecise overlapping osteology of the dodo bones in the museum—published in 1866 by the first
superintendent, Dodo-discipline, Professor Richard Owen—and the Savery painting of 1626. Van Ravesteyn, born in 1565, had died in 1620.
43
As Fuller explains in his own, vastly illustrated and moribund book, Extinct
Birds, Raphus cucullatus, the most famous of all doomed avians, is in the same
Columbiformes Order as that of the other most celebrated case of doomsday for a
species, the Passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius). In addition, at least eight
known other doves and pigeons related to them have also gone extinct.
44
Fuller tells
the whole saga
45
of a bird, which is synonymous with all those who have passed
forever before us, most notably the dinosaurs. According to Fuller, the first description of a living Dodo on the Mauritius itself was conveyed by the Dutch naval officer, Jacob Corneliszoon van Neck (1564–1638) and published in the Netherlands in
1601. The alleged last living account was provided by one mariner and scientist
Benjamin Harry around 1681 while he was busy measuring the angle of earth’s
magnetic field out in the Indian Ocean. He evidently heard about, or actually witnessed the continuing consumption of dodos by other sailors during a short time that
his ship was docked at the Mauritius island. Because he noted its flesh was tough,
he apparently attempted himself to make a meal of one, though that is uncertain.
46
40 See ibid. pp. 180, 186.
41 ibid., p. 183.
42 ibid. pp. 182, 189.
43 See “A new lease of life for the dead dodo,” by Robin McKie, January 15, 2011, The Guardian,
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/jan/16/dodo-painting-natural-history-museum,
Accessed April 22, 2020.
44 ibid., Fuller, p. 170.
45 ibid., pp. 194–203.
46 See NBC News, “When did the dodo go extinct? Maybe later than we thought,” by Douglas
Main, October 9, 2013, https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/when-did-dodo-go-extinct-maybelater-we-thought-8C11361418, Accessed April 22, 2020.
59.2 The Minutiae of Suffering
“undoubtedly painted from a stuffed subject.” It appears as a plate in a two-volume
book known as the Museum Kaiser Rudolfs II. And, as history would further
complicate things, “The majority of the subjects in the volumes were stuffed
specimens.”
40
The “Prague beak” poses a problem of who saw which bird; was it
alive, was it dead, what are the anatomical inconsistencies from the Nicolas Visscher
engraving, the Joris Hoefnagel painting (“identified as a dodo” in a National Gallery
of Art, Washington D.C. catalog), the Jan Brueghel the Elder version in his painting
of 1611, “Air,” which, explains Parish, “is very similar to the Van Ravesteyn bird,
indicating that it was either painted with reference to this source (Ziswiler 1996) or
from the Prague specimen itself.”
41
But the problem with Savery’s claim that he had
painted it from “real life” is that the dates don’t appear to work out. “Indeed,” says
Paris, “the Prague dodo may have been already stuffed by the time Savery arrived in
Prague.”
42
This contention was re-affirmed in 2011 by Judith Magee, curator of an
exhibition at London’s Natural History Museum entitled “Images of Nature” in
which new paleontological bearings were brought to bear on the imprecise overlapping osteology of the dodo bones in the museum—published in 1866 by the first
superintendent, Dodo-discipline, Professor Richard Owen—and the Savery painting of 1626. Van Ravesteyn, born in 1565, had died in 1620.
43
As Fuller explains in his own, vastly illustrated and moribund book, Extinct
Birds, Raphus cucullatus, the most famous of all doomed avians, is in the same
Columbiformes Order as that of the other most celebrated case of doomsday for a
species, the Passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius). In addition, at least eight
known other doves and pigeons related to them have also gone extinct.
44
Fuller tells
the whole saga
45
of a bird, which is synonymous with all those who have passed
forever before us, most notably the dinosaurs. According to Fuller, the first description of a living Dodo on the Mauritius itself was conveyed by the Dutch naval officer, Jacob Corneliszoon van Neck (1564–1638) and published in the Netherlands in
1601. The alleged last living account was provided by one mariner and scientist
Benjamin Harry around 1681 while he was busy measuring the angle of earth’s
magnetic field out in the Indian Ocean. He evidently heard about, or actually witnessed the continuing consumption of dodos by other sailors during a short time that
his ship was docked at the Mauritius island. Because he noted its flesh was tough,
he apparently attempted himself to make a meal of one, though that is uncertain.
46
40 See ibid. pp. 180, 186.
41 ibid., p. 183.
42 ibid. pp. 182, 189.
43 See “A new lease of life for the dead dodo,” by Robin McKie, January 15, 2011, The Guardian,
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/jan/16/dodo-painting-natural-history-museum,
Accessed April 22, 2020.
44 ibid., Fuller, p. 170.
45 ibid., pp. 194–203.
46 See NBC News, “When did the dodo go extinct? Maybe later than we thought,” by Douglas
Main, October 9, 2013, https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/when-did-dodo-go-extinct-maybelater-we-thought-8C11361418, Accessed April 22, 2020.
59.2 The Minutiae of Suffering