On looting and what comes after the looting and on 'an exhibition of works painted by Indian artists for East India Company officials, currently on display at the Wallace Collection (until 19 April)' - Inigo Thomas in LRB:

"The ornithological pictures on display at the Wallace resemble those of John Audubon’s Birds of America. Their common denominator is the 11-volume Histoire naturelle des oiseaux (1771-86) of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, illustrated by François-Nicolas Martinet and famous across the late 18th-century world (Martin and Impey both had copies). A painting by ud-Din of an Indian Roller bird perched on a sandalwood branch illustrates the connection. As the catalogue note explains, the Roller’s name comes from the twists and turns it makes to evade its captors. ‘The perching bird is depicted preening its feathers ... allowing the artist to render ... the unfurled winged plumage in its intense gradations of turquoise, indigo and purplish tones.’ Buffon writes that the Indian Roller is thought to have the species’ biggest wingspan: ud-Din’s bird may be preening but it’s also showing off the size of its wing. It’s a remarkable interplay of European descriptiveness and Indian luminescence.'

Read the article here.

Also thanks to ornithologist and ethologists we sing the praise of showing off without too much guilt.

No esthetics without showing off, no playfulness, no religion probably. You cannot be a Messiah without showing off the willingness to sacrifice yourself in order to save mankind.
Of course showing off might have brought us terrorism as well, among other things, but hey a world without this kind of vanity would have been probably worse.