Animalia

The first—and perhaps the most ancient—subject of art is the animal.

Long before the emergence of kings, heroes, and narratives of power, the earliest images created by humans were dominated by the animal world. Mammoths and bison, immense and almost mythical in presence, dominate hunting scenes carved into cave walls: visual testimonies of early societies that either celebrated survival and fortune, narrated the labor of hunting for sustenance, or expressed awe before the strength and abundance of nature.

With the domestication of animals, Neolithic communities transformed their relationship with them. Figurines made of clay, bone, or stone depict domesticated species—sheep and goats, cattle, pigs, and dogs—while wild animals such as bears or deer appear more rarely. The function of these numerous animal figurines remains open: they may have served as children’s toys, educational tools used by adults, protective amulets, funerary offerings, or elements of everyday ritual practice.

In ancient Egypt, deities were often represented with animal heads, while in the ancient Greek world animals also held a prominent place. The bull is associated with Minoan Crete and the bull-leaping rituals, the eagle becomes the emblem of Zeus, and Artemis is surrounded by sacred companion animals.

Animal sacrifice formed an integral part of religious rituals, while gods frequently transformed into animals or assumed their attributes. Zeus, for instance, transformed into a bull to approach Europa, while Io was turned into a cow.

Within Greek mythology, animals were not regarded as inferior beings, but as carriers of power, symbolism, and divine attributes, linked to protection, desire, authority, and the relationship between humans and the divine.

In Byzantine art, animal imagery retains its symbolic function, reinterpreted through Christian theology and the tradition of the Physiologus. The lamb signifies Christ and sacrifice, the dove the Holy Spirit and peace, the peacock immortality, while lions, eagles, and fantastical creatures populate icons, manuscripts, textiles, and architectural elements.

With the Renaissance, the renewed observation of nature enhances the naturalistic depiction of animals, without diminishing their symbolic role. From allegorical compositions to portraits and hunting scenes, animals continue to function as carriers of meaning, emotion, and social reference.

In subsequent centuries, their representation shifts continually, reflecting the aesthetic and ideological transformations of each era.

A significant body of animal imagery derives from travel literature. Travelers and scholars, documenting the history, monuments, and geography of the wider world, often depict in engravings and lithographs the animals and natural wonders of the eastern Mediterranean, contributing to an early visual globalization.

With the advent of photography in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, animals enter the photographic frame as companions in portraiture, but also as evidence of labor and everyday life. Dogs, horses, and cats accompany urban and military portraits, while horses, camels, and mules are documented as working animals in agricultural and wartime contexts.

From staged urban portraits to rural scenes and popular performances featuring bear handlers and itinerant entertainers, photography captures the shifting relationship between humans and the animal world in an era of rapid industrialization.

The exhibition brings together archaeological objects, figurines, sculptures, vessels, photographs, prints, illustrations, postcards, and natural specimens, highlighting the enduring presence of animals in material culture. From domestic species to imaginary creatures, a multilayered animal universe emerges, spanning different periods, places, and cultural contexts.

Of particular interest is a body of contemporary artworks—sculptures, paintings, and prints by Greek artists—where animals are reinterpreted as aesthetic, symbolic, and existential fields of inquiry.

The thematic exhibition “Animalia: The animal kingdom in SearchCulture collections” is composed of items drawn from the digital collections of SearchCulture, highlighting the long-standing presence of the animal world in art and material culture.

As part of an accessibility project, more than 2,600 items were thematically annotated with the participation of persons with disabilities, in collaboration with SciFY, a non-for-profit social enterprise, using controlled vocabularies of animal and insect names.

This process not only enhances the discoverability of the content but also opens new pathways for interdisciplinary interpretation, bringing art history into dialogue with biology, ethnography, and environmental studies. At the same time, it highlights the importance of inclusion as a productive condition of knowledge and the capacity of digital cultural infrastructures to operate as open, accessible, and participatory ecosystems.