Studies Of Bats By Scheidel, 18th Century

Studies of a bat: ("The heart nose and the funnel nose")
(Studien zu einer Fledermaus: "Die Herznase und die Trichternase.")
Watercolor over black pen
33 x 48 cm
48,5 x 63 cm with frame
Inscribed "Vesp: Spectrum" and "Vesp: Spasma. Der Ratze" in black pen by hand in the upper right and lower left

Franz Anton von Scheidel (1731–1801) was a German natural history artist, noted for his botanical illustrations of Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin's Hortus botanicus Vindobonensis (Botanical Garden of Vienna), which was published in three fascicles from 1770 to 1776 and is a description of plants at the university's botanical garden. Included in this work are 300 hand-coloured copper engravings by Franz von Scheidel.

Von Scheidel undertook several thousand drawings of plants, fish, birds and mammals for Jacquin and many other patrons.