This is an image of the world famous "Age Of Reptiles" mural painted by Rudolf Zallinger for the Peabody Museum in the 1940's. Looking at it now, the creatures, although still totally majestic (and well, awesome), look oddly stilted. That vintage T Rex looks mighty stumpy. At the time though, this was the top of the line conceptualization of dinosaurs.
Here's a pic of more of the mural:
"In April 1942, before beginning on the actual mural, Zallinger undertook 6 months of studies with Yale and Harvard scientists, and then 18 months of preliminary art work. Zallinger painted The Age of Reptiles mural from 1943 to 1947. For this magnificent achievement he received a Pulitzer Award for Painting in 1949."
Even though we have more realistic, souped up versions of dinosaurs these days, it's easy to see the magic these murals contained, igniting wonder about the prehistoric world in a million young squirming minds. You can see what an updated, more scientifically correct mural would look like now. (While cool "art wise" I have to say I prefer the look Zallinger's! The colors on the new one make me think of an extreme sports drink.)
7 comments:
If you were a nerdly, dinosaur-crazed child in the 70's odds are you remember this
Gack! She knows me!
My parents had a maxi-version of this (probably bought at the NYC Museum of Natural History) straddling a long wall. Now we own an ~8' version, mounted.
I also was a nerdly, dinosaur-crazed child in the 70's, and I'll wager many of the readers of this blog were also. :)
Oh, thank you! This has been reprinted in various encyclopedias, etc. since then and I've had the pages torn out but never knew who the artist was. Much appreciated! It's a great painting.
Dinosaur (and paleo) art is an extremely interesting genre - it would be a great subject for a show. William Stout, Steve Bissette, etc. etc.
Mystery: when I try to access your "scientifically correct" link, Blogger thinks that I want to edit your page and tries to make me sign in as you. Is the html broken there or something?
Thanks Allen- fixed!
I have two copies of these murals on the wall behind me at the moment. I used to practice drawing the dinosaurs and mammals all the time. Looking back those murals played a major part in stimulating my interest in both art and science, and put me on the path to becoming a scientist.
Now my 3 year old spends a lot of time examining them with a magnifying glass and quizzing me about the diets and habits of the animals.
Art can really change the world.
Oh yeah, I grew up on this stuff--just got a calendar of his work--still love it, as anatomically incorrect as it might be now.
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