Pliny the Elder

My Dad’s limerick book opens with a quotation from the classical scholar PLINY THE ELDER, who was the first natural historian, being the author of the Naturalis Historia, and had nothing but good things to say about elephants, hence his quote opens the book.

I looked for visual reference on Pliny, but no contemporary portraits of him survive; those that we have were done years after his death, and they range from depicting a heroic, Charlton Heston-ish dude to a wizened old Merlin type, as nobody really knows what he looked like. All I knew for sure was that Pliny was a bearded classical scholar who liked elephants, and I thought “HANG ON! I know where to find a perfect model!” So I based my depiction of Pliny on a certain classicist that I know…

8 thoughts on “Pliny the Elder”

  1. Sam- the book is due out April of next year… or there abouts.

    Ant- yes, I hear you; try as I might to avoid it the MILT KAHL influence, it is there… Just try to draw a tiger or an elephant without using design motifs that he did first… it is possible mind you (Nicolas Marlet can do it for example) but it is hard…

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  2. Jamie- this stuff is fanastic. Really.

    I’ve always loved elephants as well. Used to collect ’em as a kid.

    I can’t wait for this goodness to be colored and slapped together.

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