The Dodo Blog

Dodo painting from Le blog de Posuto. I have no idea about who is the author of this painting.

Dodo: This was made by prisoners, and appeared in a display of “scarecrow art”. Picture by Robert Grant.

Artefact of the month – July from the Zoological Society of London:

Savery’s Dodo in a Landscape with birds and animals by Roelandt Savery, circa 1629

It is thought Savery actually saw the dodo alive, the bird having been brought from its native habitat Mauritius to Prince Maurice of Nassau’s menagerie before it became extinct in the 1690s.

This is one of the few authentic pictures of the bird in life and very unusually Savery has painted a rear view of the bird in this painting.

Several of Savery’s other paintings also include the dodo in more conventional positions from which most later paintings of the dodo are derived. Only a few paintings of the dodo from life are known to exist. A key to the identification of the 21 other birds in the painting, prepared by Peter Olney, is available in the ZSL Library.

The ZSL painting is thought to date from c1629 and exemplifies the range of exotic birds in captivity in Europe in the early-17th century, as at least 18 different species have been identified.

“Wonderland“, a Alice in Wonderland engraving and some etching, by John Anthony Miller.

PCAGOE Sept. Challenge – Pickwick created by Amy. I decided to take my inspiration from Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series. Pickwick is the cloned pet dodo of the main character, Thursday. Pickwick is pretty dense, has no wings, and loves marshmallows.

Baiting the Dodo painting from the Parables series by Susan Marie Brundage.

Untitled dodo sculpture created using fimo, wood and wire, by Miguel Branco.

Via openPR, from press release of Sarlay & Jurkowitsch VIP Consulting: Crystallized Dodo – The new piece of Art for Mauritius – Intercontinental Innovation Project.

Silke Jurkowitsch and Alexander Sarlay dedicate their latest innovation project to the national symbol of Mauritius. They realize a special and extraordinary creation of the Dodo, which was driven to extinction in the late 1680s. For this exclusive piece of art Silke Jurkowitsch and Alexander Sarlay use more than 3.000 finest Austrian Crystals each set by hand in a sophisticated way. To get never seen effects they use special developed materials and technologies. The crystallized Dodo fascinates through the combination of brilliance, perfection and destiny of this bird.

Silke Jurkowitsch and Alexander Sarlay also think of distribution options for a limited, exclusive Dodo collection in Mauritius.

They should donate part of the money to animal preservation groups.

Paysage avec oiseaux (1628) by the Flemish painter Roelandt Savery.

Little known to science, the Loch Ness Monster is not, in fact, a plesiosaur or a brontosaurus or any other saurian silliness. That would be ridiculous. Dinosaurs are extinct.

Obviously it’s a dodo.

The Loch Ness Dodo

When Worlds Collide

Snorkelling

Ambulocetus vs. Cow

Festering Dodochicken

Tea With The Griffin

The dodos love the art work of Ursula Vernon. She created all those mutant dodos and many other images, adding humorous descriptions to her works. Some of those images are from her site, and some others from her site on DevianART. The images can be bought on her site, Metal and Magic.

More dodos by Ursula Venon: Ambulocetus vs. Dodo, Ascent of Dodo 2 and Anti-Dodo Propaganda.