From the museum website, 23 September 2014
The first of three planned collaborations between the University Galleries and The British Museum, Curious Beasts: Animal Prints from Dürer to Goya explores our enduring curiosity about the animal world through the beautiful and bizarre imagery found in prints from the British Museum’s incredible collection. Curious Beasts features 86 rare woodcuts, engravings, etchings, mezzotints and lithographs from the 15th to the early 19th centuries by the best known artists of these eras, including singular works such as Albrecht Dürer’s The Rhinoceros (1515) and George Stubbs’s The Sebra (1771), alongside other lesser known and seldom seen treasures. Because these works were typically small-scale, easily transported and comparatively affordable, the prints were also accessible to many levels of society and comprise a fascinating record of early modern imagination and creativity.
This exhibition also includes contributions of animal prints from the University Galleries’ own collection, in addition to specimens and rare books on loan from the San Diego Natural History Museum. Exhibition continues in the Hoehn Family Galleries in Founders Hall.