Toledo, 1970

Scientific illustration, used in all manner of publications from bestiaries to encyclopaedias, expeditions, travel journals and guide books, is a source of knowledge about Nature and a valuable scientific tool.

It has also served as a source of inspiration for visual artists who, venturing beyond the confines of images at the service of science, show us the natural world from a different perspective.  This is the case with Luis Feo.

Fascinated by animals ever since he can remember, and having trained at the School of Fine Arts in Madrid, the artist offers us his take on the animal world, inspired by scientific illustration and also by the great masters of drawing, engraving and photography, such as Dürer, José Hernández, Piranesi, Escher and Man Ray, among others.

The Museum’s zoology collections are the protagonists in most of his works, all of which are graphite on paper, with varnished finish, a technique which, thanks to his skill, expertise and patience, allows him to depict the finest details of fur and feathers and capture the expressiveness of a gesture or a look.

Luis Feo, winner of the 2014 Ynglada-Guillot prize for Drawing awarded by the Vila Casas Foundation, presents us with an almost microscopic approach to the animal world, inviting us to observe in the specimens physical and psychological aspects that would otherwise go unnoticed.