Reviewing the iconography and the central role of ‘paleoart’. Four centuries of geo-palaeontological art

Between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the first naturalistic illustrations appeared in texts and treatises, marking the true and proper passage from simple literary works to real scientific contributions. Since that time, the geo-palaeontological literature and the world of scientific illustrations developed together. For a long time initially the scientist and artist coincided in the same person, until the emergence of the ‘paleoartist’, as a professional devoted to naturalistic representations. Here, we review the fundamental steps of ‘co-evolution’ between advances in scientific knowledge and their representation in ‘paleoart’. The study led to the identification of six principal ‘Genres’; in addition, a subdivision of the history and evolution of ‘paleoart’ into six periods or major ‘eras’ is proposed. The analysis is based on a dataset with a total of 605 authors, considering a time range between the first half of the 18th century up to 2020, with paleoartists from 42 different countries. The relationship between scientist and ‘paleoartist’ has been, and will be in the future, a constructive interaction of ‘reciprocal illumination’, where the questions asked by the artist represent a genuine propellant for the advancement of knowledge and the research itself.