This exhibition is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see around 100 exceptional drawings created using the exquisite metalpoint technique. It features works by some of the greatest artists working from the late 14th century to the present including Rogier van der Weyden, Petrus Christus, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Elder, Lucas van Leyden, Rembrandt, Edward Burne-Jones, William Holman Hunt, Otto Dix, Jasper Johns and Bruce Nauman. Works drawn from the British Museum's superb collection of metalpoint drawings sit alongside major loans from European and American museums as well as private collections, including four sheets by Leonardo da Vinci from the Royal Collection.--British Museum website.

In the visual arts of the 15th to the early 19th centuries in Europe, animals were understood in relation to the human world. At the same time, increasing investigation of the natural world engaged artists in the problems of accurate representation: prints were particularly important in distributing information across a wide audience. This illustrated book explores perceptions of the natural world as seen through the eyes of imaginative artists.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.