Bears

Bears on Heraldic Art. 

 

A vessel in the shape of a bear (The Met 66.18), 3rd-4th C

A man teaches the alphabet to a trained bear (Trinity College, MS 0.4.7, fol. 75), 12th C.

Fresco (The Met 57.97.4), first half 12th century possibly 1129–34

Muzzled bear badge (British Museum 1853,0502.8). England - 14th-15th C. 

A performing bear and a man holding a stick in a scholastic miscellany (British Library Burnley 275, fol. 359v), c. 1309-1316

A trained bear does a handstand, The Life of St. Denis (BNF Fr. 2092, fol. 33v), 1317

A man performs with a dancing bear (fol. 76r), and a man plays pipe and tabor while another man dances with a bear (fol. 117v), The Romance of Alexander (Bodl. 264), 1338-1344
Also, an act in which a pipe-and-tabor player performs with a man in a deer costume (fol. 70r) and an act with a (plate-spinner?) and a dancing goat (fol. 130r)

A pair of dancing (or wrestling?) bears, Livre de la chasse (PML M.1044, fol. 1v), c. 1410

A dancing bear in a book of hours (PML M.358, fol. 88r), c. 1440-1450

Tapestry said to have belonged to Juvenal des Ursins, (The Louvre OA 10373), 1440-1460 

Two bears tapestry (Louvre OA 10372). 1450-1500 

Heraldry, (Burgerbibliothek Mss.h.h.I.16), 1484-1485

A man with a trained bear (in the lower border decoration) in The Book of the Treasure (BNF Fr. 569, fol. 1), third quarter of the 15th century

A dancing bear with musicians, a fresco from Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, c. 1490-1500

A bear plays bagpipes (fol. 2v) and another bear plays bagpipes (fol. 51r), a graduale (ÖNB Mus. Hs. 15494 Band 1 Mus. Hs. 15493), c. 1499-1500 

The Miracle of St. Anthony of Padua, c. 1500

Bear, Helmingham Herbal & Bestiary (Yale Center for British Art, Folio C 2014 4, fol. 15v), 1500

She-Bear (The Met 34.48), early 16th C. 

Plate (V&A MuseumC.19-1922). Italy - 1520

Etching by Virgil Solis (V&A Museum 13844:3). Germany - 1530-1562

Capital E, songbook by Zeghere van Male (Cambrai, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 125-8 fol. 96v), 1542

Detail from Melancolia in the Garden of Life by Matthias Gerung, 1558; note that the trainers and musicians wear similar costumes 

Bear, Icones animalium quadrupedum viviparorum et oviparorum by Conrad Gesner, 1560 

A bronze bell, 1567

Engraving (V&A Museum E.2522-1913). Germany - 1582  

Nouveaux Portraitz (V&A Museum 15247). France - ca. 1592

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