ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING 



Hubertus tells us that the Archduke Philip when 

 travelling in Spain had all kinds of beasts and birds 

 presented to him. These included " a beautifully pro- 

 portioned ostrich, and a green parrot no bigger than 

 a sparrow, talking better than it is possible to believe." ^ 

 But the parrot's natural aptitude must have made it 

 an acceptable pet from much earlier times. Two are 

 drawn in the sketch-book of Villard de Honnecourt 

 (middle of the thirteenth century),^ and to go back 

 to the beginning of the Christian era, in a wall-painting 

 at Pompeii one is shown wearing a collar and drawing 

 a biga which is driven by a grasshopper. 



Pliny suggests that in Roman times some cruelty 

 was used in the training of a parrot. "It will duly salute 

 an emperor and pronounce the words it has heard 

 spoken ; it is rendered specially frolicsome under the 

 influence of wine. Its head is as hard as its beak, and 

 this, when it is being taught to talk, is beaten with a 

 rod of iron, for otherwise it is quite unconscious to 

 blows. " ^ 



In the Curse of Ham the sky is full of birds ; hawks 

 pursue doves, a peacock with outspread tail displays 



^ Mrs. Henry Cust, Gentleme?i Errant^ p. 259. 



* Salimbene tells of a parrot which, being carried away by a kite, 

 uttered the invocation dear to his mistress, Sancte Thoniay adjuva jue, 

 and was miraculously rescued. Quoted in Sabatier, Life of St. Francis 

 ofAssisi, p. 33. 



* Natural history {S>oh\\ 1S55), bk. x. ch. 58. 



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