ABSTRACT
Art, it is often supposed, is one of the hallmarks of humanity. It reveals a capacity, common to all human beings, to disengage consciousness from the current of lived experience, so as to treat that experience as an object of reflection. Such reflection is the work of the imagination, and its products are symbolic representations. In visual art, these representations are expressed in painting, drawing and sculpture. Throughout history, in cultures around the world, non-human animals have always figured as key topics of artistic representation. Indeed from earliest times, human beings seem to have been fascinated by their diverse forms and movements, and to have desired to express this aesthetic appreciation in visual media.
