Black Crowned Crane (Balearica pavonina), Anselmus Boëtius de Boodt (rejected attribution), 1596 - 1610
brush, h 262mm × w 176mm More details
De Boodt probably assembled his ‘three large books’ as follows: one for plants, one for animals and one for birds. The latter was apparently damaged (many of the bird studies have a loss at one corner), which may have prompted the 19th-century remounting campaign. Here the lower right corner is missing, but this pavo sine cauda chinensis (literally: ‘peacock without Chinese tail’) – with its gold, feathered ‘crown’ – remained unaffected.
