Albrecht Dürer's Young Hare on Google Art Project


Considered to be one of the finest watercolors ever painted, Google Art Project has a nice zoomable scan of Albrecht Dürer's Young Hare from 1502.

From Wikipedia:

The subject was particularly challenging: because the hare's fur lay in different directions and the animal was mottled with lighter and darker patches all over, Dürer had to adapt the standard conventions of shading to indicate the outline of the subject by the fall of light across the figure. Despite the technical challenges presented in rendering the appearance of light with a multi-coloured, multi-textured subject, Dürer not only managed to create a detailed, almost scientific, study of the animal but also infuses the picture with a warm golden light that hits the hare from the left, highlighting the ears and the run of hair along the body, giving a spark of life to the eye, and casting a strange shadow to the right.

(Via Lines and Colors)