摘要：Among the Early Renaissance painters, Vittore Carpaccio (Venice or Capodistria, c. 1465 – 1525/1526) offers some of the finest impressions of the Most Serene Republic at the height of its power and wealth, also illustrating the rich merchandise traded with even the most remote parts of the then known world. For the same reason he portrayed in his paintings many exotic species of mammals and birds which were regarded as very rare and precious, perhaps such as the cardinal lory, Chalcopsitta cardinalis Gray, 1849, and/or the black lory, Chalcopsitta atra atra (Scopoli, 1786), native to the most distant Indo-Pacific archipelagos. Indeed, in Europe foreign animals were often kept in the menageries of the aristocracy, representing an authentic status symbol that underscored the affluence and social position of their owners. This paper provides the opportunity for a reflection on the origins of the trade of exotic birds - or parts of them – between the West Pacific islands and Europe.
