During our conversation on The Rite of Spring, I mentioned reading an article at one time that discussed how the mounting of dinosaurs in museums has effected our imaginations. (I didn’t find it – but this FAQ on dinosaur mounts is fascinating). I would still love to reread that article; if you’ve seen it send it my way! However, in my process of looking for it, I found some other really interesting things I can direct you to. What’s interesting to me is how the art has complimented the science, and the imagination has even outpaced the science. Sorry, Deems Taylor.
Artistic Depictions of Dinosaurs Have Undergone Two Revolutions
“More than any other single person, Greg Paul has had a major influence on how Mesozoic dinosaurs are imagined by other palaeoartists, by scientists, and by the public.”
Darren Naish’s article in Scientific American discusses dinosaur’s move from “flabby” (as in Rite of Spring) to “sprightly” and from there to feathery and soft.
Paleoart Shows Dinosaurs Weren’t the Terrible Lizards of Your Fantasies
Naish’s article also mentions paleoartist John Conway.
“Dinosaur fossils have been catching up with paleoart — and that’s quite nice, that the fossil evidence actually is lagging behind the art,”
Conway spoke to Jacqueline Ronson at Inverse. Ronson gives a nice rundown of the interaction between art and science.
“if you want to come close to the truth, you’d better bring your imagination.”
Walt Disney’s Dinosaurs: The Story of the Rite of Spring
Which brings us back to Disney and the work he and the studio were doing to advance science through their work on Fantasia.
“From the very start of preproduction on Fantasia in September 1938 Disney wanted to include a prehistoric sequence that would serve as “a coldly accurate reproduction of what science thinks went on during the first few billion years of this planet’s existence” (Fantasia). So he brought on Julian Huxley, Barnum “Mr. Bones” Brown, and Roy Chapman Andrews as scientific consultants for the project, along with Edwin Hubble.”
Noyes posits that the accurate art ignited the imagination and inspired more people to join the field of paleontology.