Marcus Elieser Bloch, a German physician with a passion for natural history, compiled a groundbreaking ichthyological reference work in the 18th century. Frustrated by his predecessors' incomplete texts, Bloch decided to catalogue all of the world's known fish. His resulting twelve-volume book, Allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Fische, was published between 1782 and 1795 and described 432 types of fish, 267 of which were previously undiscovered. Bloch's informative text was accompanied by copperplate engravings by several artists and draftsmen, including Gabriel Bodenehr, Johann Friedrich Hennig, Andreas Ludwig Krüger, C. L. Schmidt, J. G. Schmidt, and Ludewig Schmidt, among many others. Created from life, the masterful prints later received color finishes which capture their subjects so accurately that present-day ichthyologists continue to consult them. A common barbel dominates Cyprinus Barbus, a print published in Marcus Elieser Bloch's Allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Fische. Drawn by Andreas Ludwig Krüger and engraved by J.G. Schmidt between 1782 and 1784, the plate is the 18th in its series. The subject has been reclassified as Barbus barbus, but Kruger and Schmidt's devotion to accuracy makes the fish extremely recognizable today. Crosshatching along the barbel's body creates texture, while transparent watercolor paint mimics shadowing. Cyprinus barbus meticulously blends mark-making and coloring methods to create superbly three-dimensional, shiny scales.
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