Ecocriticism and animal motifs in non-European art: theoretical reflections based on a case study in Inca-colonial art.

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the use of animal motifs in non-European visual arts. It focuses particularly on their operational patterns, tangible discourses and relationships which established them in the collective imaginary, based on a case study centered on jaguar and avian motifs in Andean ceremonial vessels' iconography. The ecocritical theoretical framework employed highlights analytical possibilities that do not adhere solely to iconography in its most classical sense, but also contemplate issues related to the materiality of the works of art and the discourse of otherness constructed by them in their production, reproduction, and circulation. In this way, it seeks to undertake an epistemological effort towards new readings of the relationship between nature and human symbolic systems, aiming to contribute to the growing field of ecocritical studies in Art History.