Jan Brueghel the Elder, a painter from Belgium, painted a work titled "Air" in 1611. Centered on Urania, the goddess who presides over astronomy in Greek mythology, some 60 species of flying animals fill the canvas. It is an allegory that conveys the concept of air by likening it to flying creatures. Spanish scientists found a familiar figure in this oil painting exhibited at the Lyon Museum of Fine Arts in France. It was a small bat drawn in the upper right corner of the painting.

A bat is not a bird, but it is undeniably an animal that flies. It is not at all strange that Brueghel chose it as an allegory of air. Scientists focused on something else. The bat held a small bird in its mouth. Researchers at the Doñana Biological Station said in PNAS on June 29 that they confirmed, through a 17th-century oil painting, that Europeans had long known big brown bats hunted birds in midair at night.

Paintings displayed in museums are drawing attention as primary sources for natural history research that reveal the behavior and ecology of plants and animals. Exotic birds appearing in altarpieces of the Virgin have revealed international trade routes that went unrecorded in history, and still lifes depicting fish markets have shown changes in marine ecosystems and the development of fishing technology. The canvas is being reappraised as a means that recorded nature before science.

In Brueghel's oil painting Air (A), three bats (red squares) appear. The bat at the far right (D) holds a bird and is presumed to be the greater noctule (G), for which a nighttime bird-hunting moment was recently confirmed./Courtesy of PNAS

A painter who recorded bat ecology four centuries early

For 25 years, the scientific community debated whether Europe's largest bat, the big brown bat, hunts migratory birds in midair at night. A 2000 paper reported bird feathers in bat droppings, and DNA analysis later showed that similar migratory birds fell victim at the same time every year. But it was unclear whether bats ate birds that had fallen to the ground or hunted them directly in the air.

No wonder, since the owners of the feathers found in droppings weighed about half as much as the bats. Critics argued that if such birds were eaten in midair, it would be like a person grabbing and eating a 35-kilogram animal while jogging. The presumed hunting time was also the dead of night, making it hard to capture visual evidence.

At last, decisive evidence that put an end to the 25-year controversy was released last year in Science. Scientists from Aarhus University in Denmark and the Doñana Biological Station in Spain attached tiny recorders, GPS trackers and accelerometers to bats to track their midnight dogfights. With the information they collected, the researchers reconstructed a hunt that unfolded 1 kilometer up in pitch-black darkness.

The birds spiraled downward to evade the bats, but during three minutes of pursuit they could not escape the bats, which tripled their acceleration. Later, the bird's wings were found on the ground. Based on recordings of the bird's screams and the bat's chewing, the team inferred that the bat seized its prey in midair with the interfemoral membrane between its tail and hind legs, tore off the cumbersome wings, and ate the rest. The researchers who analyzed Jan Brueghel's painting said that people 400 years ago already knew what modern science has only now learned.

In the altarpiece Madonna of Victory completed in 1496 by Italian painter Andrea Mantegna, a sulphur-crested cockatoo native only to Oceania appears above the Madonna. The painting shows that international trade routes existed at the time that could bring live parrots to Europe./Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Of course, it is hard to conclude that Brueghel painted the exact moment of a bat's hunt. The painting is not a landscape but a work symbolizing air. It is also possible that the bird was placed as a symbol of light and the bat as a symbol of darkness.

But the researchers focused on the fact that the bat in the painting is clearly holding a bird in its mouth. There are two other bats in the painting, but only the one holding a bird resembles a big brown bat in its body size, ears and wings. The team said Brueghel likely observed bats while staying in Italy or heard accounts from others.

A parrot that revealed a stepping-stone trade route

This is not the first time a painting has served as material for natural history research. Heather Dalton of the University of Melbourne said in 2014 in Renaissance Studies that she found clues to contemporary international trade routes in Andrea Mantegna's 1496 altarpiece "Virgin of Victory." A parrot with a white body and a black beak sits on the structure above the Virgin's head. Dalton said it was a sulphur-crested cockatoo that lives only in Australia, New Guinea and parts of Indonesia.

Parrots often appear in paintings of the Virgin. In medieval Europe, parrots that mimic human speech were considered birds that could say "Ave Maria," the greeting the angel Gabriel offered when telling the Virgin of the conception of the baby Jesus. That is why parrots frequently appear in paintings of the Virgin. Dalton inferred that the parrot in the painting was drawn alive and at rest because it faces forward and its crest is not raised. In drawings made from taxidermy, parrots usually appear in profile with raised crests.

In the altarpiece Madonna of Victory completed in 1496 by Italian painter Andrea Mantegna, an exotic bird (top) and a sulphur-crested cockatoo native only to Oceania (bottom) appear. The painting shows that international trade routes existed at the time that could bring live parrots to Europe./Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

How, then, did a parrot travel so far to Italy? A European ship first reached Australia in 1606. In the 15th century, when Mantegna painted the Virgin, Europe could not trade directly with Australia. Dalton suggested the parrot reached Italy through the hands of Chinese, Indian or Arab merchants. This is supported by a hunting manual written by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the 13th century.

That book also contains an illustration of a white-feathered cockatoo. In particular, it records that the cockatoo was a gift from the sultan of Babylon, who then ruled Egypt. The sultan had close ties with merchants from China, India and Central Asia. It follows that two centuries later Italy could have obtained parrots through similar stepping-stone trade routes.

Recording ecosystem change and technological progress

Paintings can also reveal long-term changes in ecosystems. In 2021, researchers at Aix-Marseille University in France analyzed fish, crustaceans and mollusks depicted in 73 paintings produced in Europe between 1500 and 1800. The paintings were akin to ecological reports on their regions. Works by painters from the Atlantic and North Sea regions mainly showed Atlantic species such as herring and cod, while paintings from the Mediterranean region mainly depicted that sea's species.

Over time, the diversity of fish depicted in paintings generally declined. In particular, the drop was marked for freshwater fish that live in rivers and lakes and for anadromous and catadromous species that move between sea and river. The team narrowed the scope last year to Italian still lifes. Similarly, in still lifes of markets, banquet halls and kitchens from the 16th and 17th centuries, freshwater and migratory fish appeared frequently, but by the 18th century their share fell by about half. Instead, fish that live on the deep seafloor increased.

The Fish Market by Dutch painter Frans Snyders, painted in the 1620s. The fish depicted reflect changes in the marine ecosystem and fishing technology of the time./Courtesy of Kunsthistorisches Museum, Austria

The researchers did not interpret the changes in paintings solely as ecological change. From the 17th century on, advances in fishing technology enabled offshore catches, and transport, salting and preservation also improved. Especially in the shallow Adriatic Sea, the rise of bottom trawling meant flatfish, monkfish and rays that live on the seafloor began appearing often in paintings. Still lifes serve both as records of ecosystems and as technical histories showing the development of fisheries.

The development of agriculture can also be traced through paintings. In still lifes by the 17th-century Italian painter Giovanni Stanchi, watermelons have pale interiors unlike today, with red flesh divided in a swirling pattern. Paintings showing cross-sections with the bright red flesh familiar today became common from the late 18th century. Comparing paintings with botanical and agronomic records shows how the flesh and form of watermelons changed through selective breeding.

Charles Davis of Harvard University and Liu Zhazha of Fudan University said in a review released in iScience in March that natural history on canvas could advance further. As high-resolution digitization of museum and gallery collections proceeds, the amount of material for artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze is surging. If AI image search results can be cross-checked against other historical and scientific records, the work of finding specific animals and behaviors among millions of paintings could be automated. The digital repositories of museums and galleries are nearing a transformation into natural history labs.

In a still life by 17th-century Italian painter Giovanni Stanchi, the watermelon's interior is pale and the red flesh is divided in swirls, unlike today. Paintings showing cross-sections with vividly red flesh like modern watermelons become common from the late 18th century./Courtesy of Christie's

References

PNAS(2026), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2536525123

iScience(2026), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.114873

Science(2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adr2475

npj Biodiversity(2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44185-025-00103-8

Ecology and Society(2021), DOI: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12740-260426

Renaissance Studies(2014), DOI: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24423450

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