Camelids: Carrying Empires and Embodying the “Exotic”
Class Year
2026
Document Type
Digital Project
Date of Creation
Fall 2025
Department 1
Art
Abstract
Camelid describes a biological family of animals including three species of camels spread from North Africa and Asia, and four species including llamas, alpacas, guanaco, and vicuñas in South America. One thing every species has in common is that they make excellent beasts of burden. From China and Mongolia across the continent and throughout North Africa, camels were used in caravans to transport people and goods. How camelids were portrayed in art during the global Renaissance, including how prominently they were featured in pieces, depends on how highly camelids were valued in the culture producing the art. The Inca Empire was the largest empire in the Americas before European colonization. Their influence spanned across the Andes Mountains, and in order to traverse, trade, and expand the empire, camelids were a necessity. Llamas were the only domesticated beast of burden indigenous to the Americas, which translated into them having a place of honor in Incan art. The Mughal Empire was aided by the camel’s aptitude for traversing desert environments; however, they also had access to horses among their beasts of burden. For this reason, camels in Mughal art are often shown in the same capacity as horses. Meanwhile Europe, and Venice in particular, had no native species of camelid, so they do not make many appearances in Venetian art. When camelids did show up in Venetian art, they often acted as a set piece in portrayals of Africa, the Middle East, or India.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Grubb, Conor C., "Camelids: Carrying Empires and Embodying the “Exotic”" (2025). Student Publications. 1187.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/1187
Comments
This work was created for ARTH 245: Art of the Global Renaissance.