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Strange Mammal Painting In FT 165

evilsprout

Gone But Not Forgotten
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In FT165 (p20) there's a painting by an artist named Canzanella of two strange badger-like mammals, which Karl Shuker cannot identify. Anyone got any ideas what they could be? I've scanned the pic in for those unfortunate souls who don't get FT.

I've googled for artists called Canzanella, and came up with these two...

http://www.masiniart.com/ciro.htm

Not a likely identity, as the artist signs his full name (the artist of the painting just signs 'Canzanella'), and he's a landscape artist.

http://www.pigeons.com/art/wcccd/wcccd_print.htm

A wildlife artist, so a possibility.

So if anyone knows any other Canzanellas who are painters, this may be another piece in the jigsaw.
 
I had the overwhelming impression that I'd seen something like that image before. I think the head is very similar to some early Geiger artwork, some of the first conceptual art for Alien, in fact.
 
This picture came up on another MB awhile back.I don't recall now if anyone has resolved the identity of these things yet.Dr. Shuker is on one or two of the same message boards as I am,so that may be where he got the picture.
 
The head looks like a dolphin and the body is similar to a Golden Retriever. I think it's just make believe.
 
Looks like a skinny wolverine, or maybe some obscure species of dog. Dire wolf or other extinct species maybe?
 
I agree that the torso is very dog like. The back legs are weird and the head is very odd indeed. The skull bones seem very heavy and at the same time the head looks too small for the size of the animal. I can't really see any badger resemblance.
The first thing that occured to me was that the pic itself looked like some sort of promotional illustration for a film or fantasy game.
 
The animals don't have ears or tails . They have the proportions typically depicted in paintings by people who have not studied animal anatomy - head too small ,legs too long . Apart from that they appear to be generic carnivores . A sort of snow leopard/wolverine/wolf hybrid .
 
I thought the skull shape more otter-like than anything else.

Anyways I found a Lorenzo "Asavaris" Canzanella who is variously described as "art director" and "3D modelling leader" in several computer graphics/animations credits for computer game companies. But I suspect he's probably too young to have painted in watercolour 28 years ago, which is a shame, because those mammals do have the look of computer graphics about them. Obviously pure coincidence. :(
 
For some reason, that image instantly made me think i'd seen it on an LP Cover, something 'roger dean' like from a 70's prog rock album.



:confused: :confused:
 
doldogs

of course dolphins evolved from land animals,
they were called mesonychids
they looked very like that doldog picture
Andrewsarchus was the biggest one.(IIRC)
 
after a quick check

the mesonychids are only "related to the ancestors of dolphins"
ah well
they always say that-
boring cladists

steve b
 
In FT165 (p20) there's a painting by an artist named Canzanella of two strange badger-like mammals, which Karl Shuker cannot identify.

Bump ...

Here's the image and a description of the painting when it was offered for sale in 2002 ...

Canzanella mystery beasts painting.jpg

As I've often noted, mystery animals can turn up in the most unlikely places - and back in 2002 one of these just so happened to be the American version of ebay, the online auction house.

From 16 to 26 September 2002, a most extraordinary painting was offered there, as Item #907237942, by a seller from Old Town, Florida, using the name [email protected] and requiring an undisclosed reserve price. According to the seller's description of this painting, it was an original unframed water-colour, measuring 22" by 30", bearing the signature Canzanella, and it depicted a pair of very odd-looking mammals - see above photo.

The one in the foreground was described by the seller as white with a very slight pinkish hue (as the seller's video-camera photo of the painting had made it seem yellow). The seller had owned the painting for roughly 28 years after paying a thousand dollars for it, but had no information as to what the animals in it were. Emphasising their curious appearance, he/she had entitled the item 'Strange Cryptozoology Animal Painting'.

SOURCE: https://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2009/10/perfect-picture-of-mystery.html?m=1
 
Now for the update ... Shuker finally resolved the mystery of this painting in 2011 ...

It took him circa 8 years to finally locate and contact the seller ...

Now, after a long history of bafflement, this mystery painting is a mystery no longer. Over the years, I had sent a number of enquiries via eBay’s communication system to the painting’s seller, but I had never received a response. In early April 2010, however, I succeeded in tracing the seller’s email address (not visible on eBay), so I then tried emailing this person directly - and, to my great delight, on 10 April I finally received a reply! The seller proved to be a lady artist from Florida called Stephanie Sparkman, and in just a few lines she successfully cleared up all of the longstanding mysteries surrounding this painting and its subjects ...

... and the mystery seller and mystery artist turned out to be one and the same.

"I painted the picture over 28 years ago myself. It is a representation of what I felt the porpoise of today used to look like as a land animal. First the fur stage, then to smooth skin as shown in the beast behind the one in the foreground. I have NO recall of how much I got for the picture (for sure not enough as it was exceedingly detailed with hairs on the hairs [and] with several different colours on each hair) and didn't even recall what had become of it as I was looking for it not too long ago and forgot what I had done!!! Thanks to you I know what happened to it LOL.

"...[Canzanella] was my maiden name as I kept the name of my late husband which is Sparkman but always painted under my maiden name to give credit where credit was due."

SOURCE: http://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2011/02/mystery-painting-no-longer.html
 
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