This page is in preparation.
Artifacts related to cheetahs from Ancient Egypt, Islamic literature and the Mughal Empire are mostly known. I wanted to create a comprehensive page for Cheetah depictions from European literature. Even though there are clear cheetah depictions they are often not referred to as cheetah depictions and are hard to find. It is assumed that European artists couldn't distinguish different varieties of leos. Although this may hold accurate in some instances. This is clearly not the case all the time.
There are three different important clear visual qualities cheetahs possess:
- Tear marks.
- Spotted with dots.
- Dots transition to circles through end of the tail
Also cheetahs were elite pets historically thus especially in Islamic literature sometimes they are depicted with a collar. This is also very distinguishing.
¶ Artifacts with an Apparent Cheetah Depiction
¶ Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne
(External links: Wikipedia)
Those two leos are clearly cheetahs. It has been noted in the literature[1].
Everybody is looking at somewhere random in chaos meanwhile cheetahs are just looking at each other calmly. "Bacchus". Is it an anagram for Turkish "Bakış" ?
¶ Sketches of Giovannino de' Grassi
There are clear cheetah depictions in the Sketches of Italian architect and artist Giovannino de' Grassi.
Following one is especially interesting. I think obviously this is not an artifact independent of Islamic literature. Most absurd artifact with cheetah depiction clearly. Looks mystical. There is some similarity with the Seljuk coins over the sun. (Information about source)
There are some other cheetah sketches by him. You can search. (This is the source normally but currently some pages are not loaded.)
¶ Tractatus de Herbis
(Wikipedia , Image source)
An illuminated manuscript about plants from the 15th century.
In this instance tear marks are not 100% clear. But it is dotted and there are circles on the tail. And it has a collar. So 99%+ it was intentionally drawn specifically as a cheetah. The crazy thing is the text says it is "humemet" in Arabic. This does not correspond to any Arabic word of relevance. Was the writer trying to encode a message?
¶ Jacopo Ligozzi, An Azappo Archer with a Cheetah
(Source)
Tear marks are missing but possess all other distinguishing features and considered a cheetah according to source. Similar to Giovannino's sketch cheetah is chained loosely. Although it is possible artist was careless about the detail.
¶ Anonymous Sketching of two Cheetahs from 1400
¶ Antonio Pisanello, Codex Vallardi
(For information about the source: Wikimedia)
A cheetah illustration found in a manuscript from 15th century.
Even though distinguishing features are very carefully depicted tear marks are missing.
¶ Benozzo Gozzoli, Medici Palace, 1459
Depicted on wall of Medici Palace. All details are clear except circles on the tail. Clearly a cheetah.
(photo: Sailko, CC BY 3.0)
¶ Artifacts with Ambigious Cheetah Depictions
¶ Breviary of Marie of Savoy
(Source - About manuscript: Wiki)
¶ About Distribution of Artifacts
Although there can be availability and accessibility issues nevertheless there is an obvious situation. It is likely that many of the artifacts with cheetah depictions are result of some sort of movement among Italian intellectual around 15th century. Maybe they can be labeled as üzeries. I previously speculated Da Vinci was part of such movement.
An alternative and obvious explanation for artifacts can be interest of elites owning cheetahs with Islamic influence. There is a publication about this[2]. There was cheetah trafficking between Muslim and European rulers and some European rulers like Frederic the second was very interested in cheetahs. Although interest in cheetahs by elites is not uncommon. The sudden interest in cheetahs around the same time of Seljuks, Ayyubids indicates it may not be just a coincidence. In the publication it is mentioned that Salading gifted two cheetahs to an European ruler. Saladin was without any doubt cooperating with order of Assassins. They did fake multiple assassination attempts and a fake siege of castles belongin to order of assassins. Frederick II known to have good relations with Order of Assassins. It is even speculated he was offered help to eliminate his enemies.(Needs some sources.) According to the publication mentioned Frederick was very aggressive with cheetahs. Owned too many of them and gifted to other rulers. In the publication it is mentioned that he ordered 60 carpets for his cheetahs.
Warren Tresidder, The Cheetahs in Titian's "Bacchus and Ariadne", The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 123, No. 941 (Aug. 1981), pp. 481–483, 485. ↩︎
Thierry Buquet. Hunting with Cheetahs at European Courts, from the Origins to the End of a Fashion. Weber, Nadir; Hengerer, Mark. Animals and courts : Europe, c. 1200-1800, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, pp.17-42, 2020, 978-3-11-054479-4. ⟨10.1515/9783110544794-002⟩. ⟨hal-02139428⟩ ↩︎