Eagle or aigle with yellow claws and stepped tail. Detail of an engraving created in the 1800s for the “Oeuvres complètes de Buffon, augmentées par Cuvier”, published in 29 volumes from 1829 to 1832. This “Complete works” brought the previous century's influential writings by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788), on natural history and science to new generations. The engraving in this image was created from a drawing by Madame C. Pillot, wife of Paris-based publisher of the “Complete Works”, F D Pillot.
Detail from an antique engraving. The whole image depicts two eagles or aigles, one described as 'a queue étagée' or 'stepped tail' and the other as 'l'auteur destructeur' or 'harpy'. The engraving was created for the ‘Oeuvres complètes de Buffon, augmentées par Cuvier', published in 29 volumes from 1829 to 1832. This brought the previous century's influential writings by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, on natural history and science to new generations. Eagles are large, heavy-beaked birds of prey. Because of their strength, they have been a symbol of war and imperial power since Babylonian times and their likeness is found on Greek and Roman ruins, coins and medals. Madame C Pillot, the artist responsible for many of the drawings in ‘Oeuvres complètes', including this one, was the wife of the Paris-based publisher of the work, F D Pillot. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788), was a French naturalist remembered for his comprehensive work on natural history. As keeper of the Jardin du Roi (royal botanical garden) in Paris he was charged with cataloguing the royal collections in natural history. He transformed the task into an undertaking to produce an account of the whole of nature, which became his great work, the influential 36-volume 'Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière …’, published between 1749 and 1788. It was the first modern attempt to systematically present all existing knowledge in the fields of natural history, geology and anthropology in a single publication. In the case of ‘Oeuvres complètes', Buffon's work was augmented by Frédéric Cuvier (1773-1838), younger brother of the naturalist and zoologist Georges Cuvier (1769-1832).
Size: 5018px × 5018px
Location: Against plain background
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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