Art, Science, & Technology at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center: Zoology

During the Renaissance, artists advanced the field of natural history by depicting animals studied from life. In the sixteenth century, illustrations of animals based on firsthand observation began to be incorporated into natural history texts. In Europe and the United states, the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries proved a dynamic yet fraught time for study of the natural world. Zoos grew in popularity into the mid 1800s, exposing the public's fascination with, and impulse to tame, wild animals. Artists maintained this tradition in the twentieth century.

To anticipate and celebrate the opening of Vassar's new Science Center in Spring 2016, the Loeb presented a series of installations of works from the permanent collection that mark the longstanding and multifaceted relationship of art, science, and technology. Themes included botany, perspective, anatomy, and optics, among others. The selection of works, diverse in date and subject matter, explored the common human impulse fueling artistic expression, scientific inquiry, and discovery: the desire to understand and interpret the world around us.