Expanding Eden: Animal discovery and rethinking paradise in Jan Brueghel the Elder’s Garden of Eden
Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625) painted one of the earliest European representations of guinea pigs in his work Garden of Eden (1613). In Brueghel’s creation, newly discovered animals from early explorations of the Americas, including the guinea pig, turkey, and scarlet macaw, are included alongside animals known from Africa, Asia, and Europe. The …