Panthers are the most charismatic animals in a typical bestiary. Known for the increasingly relatable behaviour of eating until they can’t move and then sleeping for several days, they somehow manage to wake up with breath so sweet it attracts every animal except their mortal enemy, the dragon. Their heads are fearsome to look upon, but their bodies are so beautifully patterned that they also attract other animals, as described by 13th c. scholar
Bartholomaeus Anglicus:
“[T]he Panthera and the Tigre bée
most dressed with divers speckles and divers coulours: and some beastes joye of
theyr owne coulours, as Lyons in Siria, that be blacke with white specks, and
be like to Panthers. And all foure footed beasts have liking to beholde the diverse
coulours of the Panthera and Tygres, but they be a fearde of the horriblenesse
of theyr heads, and therfore they hide their heads, and toll the beastes to
them with fayrenesse of the other deale of the body.”
What’s important for this blog is that illustrations of panthers provide a dazzling sample of colours and patterns.
You’ve got the classic predatory quadruped with spots:
A beaft that wouldn’t be that exciting on it’s own, but is the only bestiary example I can think of where marginal illustrations intersect with the frame:
A variety of stripes and squiggles:
Some bold colour-blocking:
Artists who may or may not have followed instructions RE:colours, but have done some fascinating things with form:
Literally just a horse:
A cow-like panther who has gotten stuck in some trees, but gets bonus points for clearly referencing this bit from Pliny:
“It is said by some, that the panther has, on
the shoulder, a spot which bears the form of the moon; and that, like it, it
regularly increases to full, and then diminishes to a crescent.”
A beaft who’s mostly remarkable for having perfected a 70s aesthetic centuries before the 1970s:
Miniatures I’m sad I couldn’t get a better look at digitally:
