Ryan E. Gregg – författare

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 "e;cetaceous units"e;-iconographic compounds showing humans dominating marine mammals-served as powerful symbols of humanity's relationship with the ocean and the natural world more broadly, marking a transition from medieval moralizing approaches to early modern empirical investigation.The study provides a detailed iconographical analysis of works by artists such as Herri met de Bles, Master J. Kock, Anton van den Wyngaerde, and Hendrick Goltzius. It traces the evolution of whale imagery from ancient Roman sources through medieval bestiaries to Renaissance naturalist texts, examining how flensing scenes reflected contemporary whaling practices while symbolizing Christian themes and political authority. The study incorporates ecocritical methodology to demonstrate how these images justified European exploitation of natural resources and established visual precedents for later scientific illustration.This book will appeal to art historians specializing in early modern art, environmental historians, and scholars of ecocriticism. It offers valuable insights for researchers interested in human-animal relationships, maritime history, and the intersection of art with scientific inquiry during the Renaissance period.

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 "e;cetaceous units"e;-iconographic compounds showing humans dominating marine mammals-served as powerful symbols of humanity's relationship with the ocean and the natural world more broadly, marking a transition from medieval moralizing approaches to early modern empirical investigation.The study provides a detailed iconographical analysis of works by artists such as Herri met de Bles, Master J. Kock, Anton van den Wyngaerde, and Hendrick Goltzius. It traces the evolution of whale imagery from ancient Roman sources through medieval bestiaries to Renaissance naturalist texts, examining how flensing scenes reflected contemporary whaling practices while symbolizing Christian themes and political authority. The study incorporates ecocritical methodology to demonstrate how these images justified European exploitation of natural resources and established visual precedents for later scientific illustration.This book will appeal to art historians specializing in early modern art, environmental historians, and scholars of ecocriticism. It offers valuable insights for researchers interested in human-animal relationships, maritime history, and the intersection of art with scientific inquiry during the Renaissance period.

In City Views in the Habsburg and Medici Courts, Ryan E. Gregg relates how Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Duke Cosimo I of Tuscany employed city view artists such as Anton van den Wyngaerde and Giovanni Stradano to aid in constructing authority. These artists produced a specific style of city view that shared affinity with Renaissance historiographic practice in its use of optical evidence and rhetorical techniques.History has tended to see city views as accurate recordings of built environments. Bringing together ancient and Renaissance texts, archival material, and fieldwork in the depicted locations, Gregg demonstrates that a close-knit school of city view artists instead manipulated settings to help persuade audiences of the truthfulness of their patrons’ official narratives.