Lacépède’s Whale System
In 1825, Count de Lacépède, a prominent naturalist, published a scientific systemized work on whales containing numerous pictures of Leviathan species. The narrator observes that all these illustrations are “not only incorrect” but that even the picture of the Mysticetus or Greenland whale (the Right whale) lacks any “counterpart in nature,” as confirmed by Scoresby, an experienced authority on that species. This demonstrates that even serious scientific efforts fell short of accurate representation.
Frederick Cuvier’s Sperm Whale
The narrator reserves his harshest criticism for Frederick Cuvier’s 1836 “Natural History of Whales,” in which Cuvier presents his picture of the Sperm Whale. The narrator warns that showing this illustration to any Nantucketer requires arranging a “summary retreat.” He declares that Cuvier’s Sperm Whale is “not a Sperm Whale, but a squash.” He speculates that Cuvier derived the picture from a Chinese drawing, like his predecessor Desmarest, noting the Chinese are “queer cups and saucers” informants about their artistic style.
Sign-Painters’ Whales
The narrator turns to popular street imagery, describing the whales painted on signs above oil-dealers’ shops. These depictions are “generally Richard III. whales, with dromedary humps, and very savage,” breakfasting on “three or four sailor tarts” (whaleboats full of mariners). Their “deformities flounder in seas of blood and blue paint,” presenting a monstrous, aggressive image far removed from the living animal.
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