The Morgan Library & Museum will present In the Company of Animals. Art, Literature, and Music at the Morgan, an exhibition open March 2 through May 20, 2012.
Jacob Hoefnagel (1575–ca. 1630) Flemish Orpheus and the Animals Point of brush and watercolor and bodycolor on vellum Signed and dated in gold, Ja: Houfnagl / 1613. 6 9/16 x 8 1/4 inches (166 x 210 mm) Purchased on the Sunny Crawford von Bülow Fund 1978; 1998.22
Drawing from the breadth of the Morgan’s collection, this exhibition will explore the ways in which animals have served as inspiration for and subjects of diverse creative works.
Ancient seals, drawings, prints, books, and medieval, music and literary manuscripts will illustrate the place of animals in the creative process–as symbols, teachers of moral lessons, talking characters, companions, and subjects of scientific study and artistic inspiration.
The exhibition includes examples from such artists, composers, and writers as John James Audubon, William Blake, Albrecht Dürer, T. S. Eliot, David Hockney, Ted Hughes, George Orwell, Sergei Prokofiev, Peter Paul Rubens, E. B. White, and Virginia Woolf.
In the Company of Animals is organized by Clara Drummond, Assistant Curator at The Morgan Library & Museum. – www.themorgan.org
