by Jon Lackman | 1 April 2009 | Books
Also in the February 2009 Burlington Magazine, Richard Ormond reviews Diana Donald’s Picturing Animals in Britain:
Diana Donald has written a challenging and densely argued book … to bring animals “centre stage in historical research,” and establish the boundaries of a new discipline. She is an evangelist of her subject and of the animal kingdom to which she wishes to give a voice. She challenges what she calls the dialectic of “anthropocentrism” and exposes the contradictions and dichotomies that have led animals to be admired and cherished on the one hand, and abused and decimated on the other … Picturing Animals in Britain is a pioneering and polemical book. It presents the case for animal painting, often under-valued or ignored by art historians, and it establishes the intellectual foundations for its study. If occasionally the polemic overtakes the art, it is because of the author’s passion for her subject and for the rights of the animals themselves.
