Animalia

Animalia, the biological kingdom encompassing all multicellular, eukaryotic organisms, constitutes one of the most enduring and versatile subjects in visual art. Derived from the Latin anima, meaning breath or soul, the term was codified by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 as the taxonomic category that includes both humans and animals under a single biological classification. In art, animals appear across every medium and era, serving as symbols, companions, prey, spiritual intermediaries, and objects of scientific curiosity. The motif recurs because animals occupy a liminal position between the human and non-human worlds, making them ideal vehicles for exploring identity, power, mortality, and the natural order. Two major exhibitions in 2026, the Heidi Horten Collection's Animalia. Of Animals and Humans and the Al Thani Collection's presentation at the Hôtel de la Marine, demonstrate the continued centrality of animal representation in contemporary museum programming, each drawing on substantial holdings to examine how cultures have engaged with animal imagery across millennia.

The iconography of animals in art operates on multiple registers simultaneously. Animals function as symbols of power, as seen in the lion's dual role as royal emblem and dangerous adversary. They serve as spiritual beings connected to divinities, exemplified by the Egyptian god Thoth in baboon form or the creatures populating Buddhist mandalas such as the Scroll of Deities of the Diamond World Mandala. The Heidi Horten Collection exhibition explicitly examines how humans project ambivalent roles onto animals, from the concept of "man's best friend" to the objectification and exploitation of creatures as resources. The Al Thani Collection exhibition at the Hôtel de la Marine structures its exploration around several thematic angles: animals as symbols of authority, as spiritual intermediaries, as domestic companions, as livestock essential for survival, as prey for hunting or fishing, and as dangerous beasts to be conquered. This exhibition also incorporates what it terms the "imaginary bestiary," including dragons, griffins, and the Nemean lion of Hercules, demonstrating that animal iconography extends beyond the natural world into the realm of myth and legend. The scientific dimension of animal representation appears in works created for observation and classification, reflecting the Enlightenment impulse to catalogue nature.

The specific collection under discussion contains 92 works depicting Animalia, spanning diverse media, periods, and cultural origins. The holdings include The Old Oaken Bucket which Hung in the Well, multiple untitled works, the Japanese Buddhist painting 仏涅槃図 (Death of the Historical Buddha, Nehan-zu), the 金剛界曼荼羅諸尊図像 (Scroll of Deities of the Diamond World Mandala), and The Falls of Niagara. These examples indicate considerable range, from American genre painting to East Asian religious art to landscape painting. The Heidi Horten Collection's 2026 exhibition Animalia. Of Animals and Humans presents approximately 90 works from the 20th and 21st centuries, featuring artists such as Karel Appel, Marc Chagall, George Condo, Mark Dion, Damien Hirst, Gustav Klimt, Fernand Léger, Roy Lichtenstein, Franz Marc, Meret Oppenheim, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol. The Al Thani Collection's exhibition at the Hôtel de la Marine assembles over 120 objects spanning four continents from the 3rd millennium BC to the 20th century AD, including a Laconian bronze votive horse from the Greek Geometric period (750-730 BC), a Warring States period tiger-form garment buckle (475-221 BC), a Fabergé jewelled snake-head cane handle (c. 1890), and a Senufo wooden bird sculpture (c. 1900).

The treatment of Animalia in art has shifted dramatically across movements and cultures, though certain continuities persist. Ancient Greek bronzes and Egyptian faience figures established conventions of animal representation that persisted for centuries. The Al Thani exhibition traces a trajectory from ancient Greece to modern times, incorporating Chinese, Ivorian, Russian, and Western European material, suggesting both shared motifs and culturally specific interpretations. In Japanese Buddhist art of the medieval and early modern periods, animals appeared within complex iconographic programs, as in the Death of the Historical Buddha and mandala scrolls, where they carried specific soteriological meanings. The European tradition saw particular intensity in animal representation during the Romantic period, when artists sought in nature an alternative to industrial modernity. The 20th century brought radical reconfigurations: Franz Marc's chromatic, spiritually charged animal paintings, Pablo Picasso's fractured bull forms, and the Surrealist reconstructions of Meret Oppenheim all challenged naturalistic representation. Contemporary artists in the Heidi Horten Collection exhibition, including Lena Henke, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, and Flaka Haliti, continue to interrogate the human-animal boundary as a site of political and ethical inquiry. The scientific study of animals, which intensified from the Enlightenment through the development of zoology and ethology, also shaped artistic representation, as natural history illustration attained status as a distinct genre.

Several specific works and artists merit attention within this corpus. Roy Lichtenstein's Forest Scene (1980) and François-Xavier Lalanne's Singe Avisé (très grand) (2005/2008) anchor the Heidi Horten Collection's contemporary presentation, representing divergent approaches to animal subject matter, respectively Pop Art appropriation and surrealist sculptural fantasy. The Laconian bronze votive horse (750-730 BC) in the Al Thani Collection exemplifies early Greek geometric reduction of animal form to essential linear elements. The massive Warring States period tiger buckle (475-221 BC) demonstrates the integration of animal imagery with functional metalwork in ancient China. Gustav Klimt's inclusion in the Heidi Horten exhibition suggests the Viennese Secessionist's engagement with organic, often serpentine forms, while Franz Marc represents German Expressionism's most sustained commitment to animal subjects as vehicles for spiritual expression. The Senufo bird sculpture (c. 1900) illustrates African traditions of abstracted animal forms with cosmological significance. The 仏涅槃図 (Death of the Historical Buddha) in the base collection represents a canonical East Asian religious treatment where animals attend the central sacred event. Andy Warhol's graphic work, while not primarily focused on animals, appears in both the Animalia exhibition and a related cabinet exhibition on the shoe as fetish object, suggesting the breadth of the collection's Pop Art holdings.

The legacy of Animalia as an artistic subject continues to expand in the 21st century, as contemporary institutions reconceptualize the human-animal relationship in light of environmental crisis, biotechnology, and evolving ethical frameworks. The Heidi Horten Collection's adoption of Animalia as a guiding principle for critical examination reflects a broader museological shift toward interrogating anthropocentrism. The exhibition's framing of animals as "fellow creatures and co-actors" rather than merely objects of representation represents a significant departure from traditional natural history display. The Al Thani Collection's presentation, with its chronological and geographical sweep, demonstrates that animal art constitutes a universal language across civilizations, even as specific meanings remain culturally contingent. The 2026 convergence of these major exhibitions in Vienna and Paris indicates sustained institutional investment in animal subjects. For scholars, the continued production of exhibition catalogues and critical frameworks around Animalia provides essential material for understanding how societies negotiate their relationship with non-human life. The scientific collections, such as the Natural History Museum's 29 million zoological specimens, maintain a parallel but increasingly intersecting legacy with artistic collections, as both confront questions of preservation, representation, and the construction of knowledge about the natural world.