{"id":"01KF7FPRDWCQ4M0PG2SQR7J9ZM","cid":"bafkreichovgd3yg2esqytpwpv22fnksvzpxb7idg43sgn6amts2cqwyd6y","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10570,"extracted_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:19.381Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KESYVB66H8YEVTN88DWE9W8D","start_line":10510,"text":"CHAPTER 55. Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales.\r\n\r\nI shall ere long paint to you as well as one can without canvas,\r\nsomething like the true form of the whale as he actually appears to the\r\neye of the whaleman when in his own absolute body the whale is moored\r\nalongside the whale-ship so that he can be fairly stepped upon there.\r\nIt may be worth while, therefore, previously to advert to those curious\r\nimaginary portraits of him which even down to the present day\r\nconfidently challenge the faith of the landsman. It is time to set the\r\nworld right in this matter, by proving such pictures of the whale all\r\nwrong.\r\n\r\nIt may be that the primal source of all those pictorial delusions will\r\nbe found among the oldest Hindoo, Egyptian, and Grecian sculptures. For\r\never since those inventive but unscrupulous times when on the marble\r\npanellings of temples, the pedestals of statues, and on shields,\r\nmedallions, cups, and coins, the dolphin was drawn in scales of\r\nchain-armor like Saladin’s, and a helmeted head like St. George’s; ever\r\nsince then has something of the same sort of license prevailed, not\r\nonly in most popular pictures of the whale, but in many scientific\r\npresentations of him.\r\n\r\nNow, by all odds, the most ancient extant portrait anyways purporting\r\nto be the whale’s, is to be found in the famous cavern-pagoda of\r\nElephanta, in India. The Brahmins maintain that in the almost endless\r\nsculptures of that immemorial pagoda, all the trades and pursuits,\r\nevery conceivable avocation of man, were prefigured ages before any of\r\nthem actually came into being. No wonder then, that in some sort our\r\nnoble profession of whaling should have been there shadowed forth. The\r\nHindoo whale referred to, occurs in a separate department of the wall,\r\ndepicting the incarnation of Vishnu in the form of leviathan, learnedly\r\nknown as the Matse Avatar. But though this sculpture is half man and\r\nhalf whale, so as only to give the tail of the latter, yet that small\r\nsection of him is all wrong. It looks more like the tapering tail of an\r\nanaconda, than the broad palms of the true whale’s majestic flukes.\r\n\r\nBut go to the old Galleries, and look now at a great Christian\r\npainter’s portrait of this fish; for he succeeds no better than the\r\nantediluvian Hindoo. It is Guido’s picture of Perseus rescuing\r\nAndromeda from the sea-monster or whale. Where did Guido get the model\r\nof such a strange creature as that? Nor does Hogarth, in painting the\r\nsame scene in his own “Perseus Descending,” make out one whit better.\r\nThe huge corpulence of that Hogarthian monster undulates on the\r\nsurface, scarcely drawing one inch of water. It has a sort of howdah on\r\nits back, and its distended tusked mouth into which the billows are\r\nrolling, might be taken for the Traitors’ Gate leading from the Thames\r\nby water into the Tower. Then, there are the Prodromus whales of old\r\nScotch Sibbald, and Jonah’s whale, as depicted in the prints of old\r\nBibles and the cuts of old primers. What shall be said of these? As for\r\nthe book-binder’s whale winding like a vine-stalk round the stock of a\r\ndescending anchor—as stamped and gilded on the backs and title-pages of\r\nmany books both old and new—that is a very picturesque but purely\r\nfabulous creature, imitated, I take it, from the like figures on\r\nantique vases. Though universally denominated a dolphin, I nevertheless\r\ncall this book-binder’s fish an attempt at a whale; because it was so\r\nintended when the device was first introduced. It was introduced by an\r\nold Italian publisher somewhere about the 15th century, during the\r\nRevival of Learning; and in those days, and even down to a\r\ncomparatively late period, dolphins were popularly supposed to be a\r\nspecies of the Leviathan.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KF7FPMNY5RP6TBJBH0H6VQFM","peer_label":"Chapter 55","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KF7FPMNY5RP6TBJBH0H6VQFM","peer_label":"Chapter 55","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KF7FPKDT5SHSH1ZQV6ABHQCA","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"book","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KESYJX0Z6XE0HWTS5N3SDG0B","peer_label":"The Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KF7FPRD3QH0DK3ET921KFG2Y","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:19.945Z","ts":"2026-01-18T02:42:27.880Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KF7FCDA7SCSJ6A30TDPDSJQV"}}