Darwin's Natural ion



Darwin's Natural ion

By opening a new perspective on man and his origins, Darwin's theories of evolution and natural ion provided fertile territory for the creative imagination. Artistic responses were wide-ranging: imaginative projections of prehistory to troubled evocations of a life dominated by the struggle for existence to fantastic visions of life-forms in perpetual evolution. Darwin's response to the beauties of the natural world also permeated artistic images of color and pattern in nature, in relation to both protective camouflage and sexual display.

In Darwin's day scientific discoveries were widely discussed by the public at large. William Dyce's iconic ...