Animals in Art: Some Trends Across Three Millennia

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Abstract
A survey of nearly 1,700 paintings from 17 major museums in Europe and America disclosed a steady decline in the appearance of animals, but not of humans. Nearly 60% of the works from ancient Egypt and Persia contained animal representations, whereas only 15% of the 20th century paintings showed animals as either a central or peripheral part of the compositions. These results were essentially replicated in a survey of major art history texts, the illustrations for which were selected for pedagogical reasons rather than popular appeal. In order to see whether these results applied to a more universal art form, 1,798 coin sides dating back to 500 b.c. were examined for their animal, human, and non-living content. Although animals virtually disappeared from coins between the fall of Rome and a.d. 1000, there has been a steady increase since then in the appearance of animals on Western coins.

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