Franz Anton von Scheidel was a painter of natural history who specialized in accurate and detailed depictions of the animal and plant world. He was a sought-after illustrator for encyclopedic works of natural science and was known for his large-format paintings. In this particular watercolor, he breaks away from traditional depictions of natural history and portrays the Hawksbill sea turtle's scale armor in a diagonal and isolated manner, highlighting its primeval and magical qualities. Scheidel's style is similar to that of Aloys Zötl, who was born around 70 years after him. The Hawksbill sea turtle was first listed as "Testudo imbricata" by Carl Linnaeus in 1766 and is now known as "Ertmochelys imbricata"...