1st Edition
Beached Whale Images in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp Symbols of Humanity’s Dominion over the Earth
By Ryan E. Gregg
Copyright 2026
198 Pages
9 Color & 54 B/W Illustrations
by
Routledge
198 Pages
9 Color & 54 B/W Illustrations
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
This book examines a small group of sixteenth-century Antwerp artworks depicting the butchering of beached whales, revealing how these images represent a pivotal moment in European attitudes toward nature. It argues that these "cetaceous units"—iconographic compounds showing humans dominating marine mammals—served as powerful symbols of humanity's relationship with the ocean and the natural world... Read more
Introduction. 1. Magnus, Gessner, and the Codification of an Iconography 2. The Antwerp Flensing Group 3. Ancient and Medieval Whales: Moralizing Monstrous Marine Mammals 4. Hunted and Stranded Whales: Dominion over Nature 5. Beached Whales: Natural Marvel and Dutch Symbol 6. Conclusions. Bibliography
Biography
Ryan E. Gregg is Associate Professor of Art History at Webster University. Specializing in sixteenth-century city views, his publications include City Views in the Habsburg and Medici Courts (2018) and articles on Anton van den Wyngaerde’s working methods, his Panorama of Walcheren, and other topics.
