Not just an Easter delight: Bunnies, hares and rabbits in art

Hamburg artist, Tina Oelker, is known for her rabbit paintings. Her 2021 self-published book "20 Years of Hares and Gods" covers 20 years of her artistic work featuring her favorite long-eared muse. The book also features selected paintings, drawings, poems, and prose by Oelker and an in-depth summary of gods from Greek mythology.

Bunnies in all shapes, sizes, and forms have long been celebrated in art. From ancient Greece to current times, rabbits and other little critters with floppy ears have always been the subject of painting and sculpture. Photo artist Antonius created this naturalistic image of a hare. It's inspired by the Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. You can almost hear the crackling of the hay.

Dürer's 1502 watercolor of the Young Hare is world-famous. Reproductions of the painting used to be a common sight in living rooms across Germany. The original is so valuable that the Albertina Museum in Vienna displays the masterpiece only once every five years. The hare in this 521-year-old painting has no apparent religious or mythical symbolism.

Dürer's famous painting has been replicated by many over the years, including German artist Sigmar Polke, who in 1970 reduced the image to a silhouette using nails and a rubber band. Polke included Dürer's well-known "AD" monogram in the work, as a commentary on the many forgeries of Dürer's original over the years.

Rabbit hunting was a popular pastime in ancient Greece. Because the resilient animals managed to breed quickly and maintain their numbers, they became symbols of fertility, vitality, and sexual desire. So there's more than meets the eye to this vase, dating back to the 5th century BC, portraying a man stroking his bunny.

The Romans depicted rabbits as connoisseurs of grapes. Many paintings, murals, mosaics and even tapestries — like this one dating back to 6th century Egypt — show bunnies eating grapes. Unlike in the Roman tradition, however, this imagery does not represent lust and desire. It's more straightforward: Grape-fed bunnies were eaten as they were considered a delicacy.

This 16th century window at the Paderborn cathedral in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, features three hares joined by their ears. This kind of imagery had already been around for centuries and is dated back to ancient Rome. In Christianity, it symbolizes the Holy Trinity of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

Yes, it looks like a camel but it's a bunny. "The Hare with Amber Eyes" is a Japanese ivory carving that inspired a novel with the same title by Edmund de Waal. No larger than a thumb, this work of art is known as a netsuke — an ornate button or toggle used to fasten kimonos or keep other items together.

The rabbit is one of 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac, which dates to the 5th century BC. This contemporary bronze sculpture by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is a reference to the rabbit sculpture from the 18th century Zodiac Fountain in Beijing’s old summer palace. The sculpture was looted about a 100 years later by Anglo-French soldiers during the Second Opium War.

Rabbits also feature in Chinese art beyond the Zodiac, particularly in traditional ink paintings. But modern artists also frequently turn to bunnies for inspiration. In Beijing, you may come across this larger-than-life hare at the 798 Art Zone.

Jeff Koons' steel Rabbit is considered one of the most iconic works of postmodern art. The American artist first presented this work in a prestigious art gallery in New York, in 1986 as part of his "Statuary" series. In 2007, he created a gigantic helium-balloon replica that floated above New York's Fifth Avenue in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Giant bunnies seem to be popoular in contemporary art. Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman erected a huge rabbit sculpture titled Moon Rabbit in Taiwan in 2014 and has toured the world with similar projects. Hofman says his art installations should not be regarded as representative sculptures of animals but rather as "abstractions of toys."

Giant bunnies are for everyone. In the British suburb Southbourne, near Bournemouth, local resident Fiona McArthur erected a giant Easter bunny in front of her home in 2020. The rabbit was displayed there to cheer people up during the COVID-19 lockdown. McArthur said that the bunny also served as a sign of solidarity with people working for the country's public health care system.