Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
Javascript must be enabled to continue!
‘Verscheurende Beyren’
View through CrossRef
This article examines the depiction of polar bears in Dutch painting and graphics from the late 16th to the early 18th centuries. Reports of the first encounters between Dutch humans and polar bears established the idea of these animals as aggressive predators. This idea dominated the image of the bear in illustrated travelogues as well as in allegorical depictions of the Arctic and whaling pictures. The polar bear thus became a symbol for the dangers of the region and appears as an obstacle to the human exploitation of the Arctic. However, depictions of the bloody hunt for polar bears indicate the economically motivated triumph of Europeans in this inhospitable area.
Title: ‘Verscheurende Beyren’
Description:
This article examines the depiction of polar bears in Dutch painting and graphics from the late 16th to the early 18th centuries.
Reports of the first encounters between Dutch humans and polar bears established the idea of these animals as aggressive predators.
This idea dominated the image of the bear in illustrated travelogues as well as in allegorical depictions of the Arctic and whaling pictures.
The polar bear thus became a symbol for the dangers of the region and appears as an obstacle to the human exploitation of the Arctic.
However, depictions of the bloody hunt for polar bears indicate the economically motivated triumph of Europeans in this inhospitable area.