De Bestiarium Naturis

Andrea Pedrazzini is an Italian poet and visual artist working in Milan, best known for his illustrations and vignettes

 published in magazines and newspapers. In 2000 he began the personal artistic project

De Bestiarium Naturis,

 which he planned as a modern bestiary composed of 999 original ink and mixed media drawings

 representing fantastic animals. More than 700 creatures have been completed to date.

 Following are some of the refined and patiently crafted artworks that Pedrazzini 

has exposed in galleries or published in his artist books and blog. Hopefully he will 

be able to publish the entire magnum opus in book form once it is finished.

Above are a few plates from Pedrazzini's Bestiario degli animali autunnali,

published in 2000 and now a freely downloadable e-book

It was difficult to pick just a few images from this delightful banquet of visual puns and ironic inventions. 

Pedrazzini's intelligent and critical eye seems to have conceived this strange collection of creatures

 as an intimate exploration of the deep awkwardness of human nature. His mutating menagerie

 has been grafted with disproportionate and seemingly redundant appendages and accessories,

 and looks hardly fit for survival in the wild. Perhaps, the obviously precarious yet strangely reassuring

 presence of these evolutionary misfits and their questioning gaze are what make them so endearing...