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Terrible Medieval Drawings of Animals That are Cracking Us Up
What do you do? You improvise
Art Stuff 19 Oct 2021

So, you’re a medieval manuscript illustrator, right, and you’ve been asked to draw an animal you’ve literally never seen. What do you do? You improvise. 

That’s what we all do when we don’t have a clue, right?

Here are some of our favourite medieval attempts at animals that have us laughing out loud and sending screenshots to our office besties. 

Frieze Week has been a lot – rest up and have a giggle at the baby bat with us and if something doen`t work quite right this week, remember these drawings…

The ‘Angry Birds’ Oyster

The Whale That Looks a Bit Like a Dog / Fish

The Owl with Human Face

Guillaume Rondelet’s Awkward Orca

The Baby Bat

Jacob van Maerlant’s Snail That Looks Like a Dog Coming Out of a Horn

Jacob van Maerlant’s Elephant With Tornado Trunk

The Fashion Week Camel

The Embarrassed Leopard

Author: Verity Babbs

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