This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
The great Symbolist draughtsman Max Klinger created this image as one of ten in a narrative series of etchings called, Paraphrase on the Discovery of a Glove, which follows the dreamy travels of a single lost glove. This second-last panel, The Seizure is remarkable in a couple of ways. Symbolists, like their artistic descendants the Surrealists were obsessed with dreams: note the unbroken window frame. The flying reptile is also undoubtedly fanciful, but perhaps its anatomy is a poor description Klinger recalled of a pterodactyl, which had correctly been identified as a flying (rather than aquatic) animal by Georges Cuivier some 82 years earlier.
Perhaps I should also add this series had a profound impact on my own science-art.
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The Seizure, detail from Paraphrase on the Discovery of a Glove by Max Klinger.
1881, etching and aquatint.
You can view the whole series page by page on Art Bin Origo, or all at once on The Visual Telling of Stories.
Max Klinger entry on Wikipedia
Symbolist entry on Wikipedia
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