A Sloth

Beneath a canopied structure, a wiry-haired animal—possibly a sloth—nibbles on a twig, while above it appears a Latin passage drawn from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. Although image and text seem perfectly unified, their elements were created nearly 30 years apart. The refined Roman-style lettering was executed by the Hungarian artist, Georg Bocskay, as a demonstration of his calligraphic mastery; it originally appeared against a plain black background.

The illustration was later added by Joris Hoefnagel, who interpreted the gradually diminishing script as a suggestion of spatial recession—an illusion contradicted by the flatness of the text itself. To reinforce this effect, he framed the letters within an architectural canopy rendered in perspective. Hoefnagel also responded playfully to the dark ground, reading it as nighttime: the animal’s fur glows with silvery highlights, and touches of gold shimmer softly in the surrounding darkness.

P.S. Explore surprising, quirky animals that fill the medieval manuscripts!

P.P.S. If you love discovering cute and fascinating animals in artworks, don’t miss our Animals and Animals in Japanese Art postcard sets!