---
title: "Fantastic Animals (1978), Chico da Silva, painting"
description: "Fantastic Animals (1978), Chico da Silva. Acrylic on canvas, 42 x 60 cm. Painting in the João Cunha Collection."
canonical: https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/fantastic-animals-1978-028/
lang: en
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
translations:
  en: https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/fantastic-animals-1978-028/
  es: https://chicodasilva.org/es/pinturas/animales-fantasticos-1978-028/
  fr: https://chicodasilva.org/fr/peintures/animaux-fantastiques-1978-028/
  pt: https://chicodasilva.org/pt/pinturas/animais-fantasticos-1978-028/
  ar: https://chicodasilva.org/ar/%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AD%D8%A7%D8%AA/%D8%AD%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%AE%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-1978-028/
  zh-Hans: https://chicodasilva.cn/%E4%BD%9C%E5%93%81/%E5%A5%87%E5%B9%BB%E5%8A%A8%E7%89%A9-1978-028/
---

# Fantastic Animals

![A large fantastic insect attacking a smaller insect on a blue ground. Fantastic Animals, Chico da Silva, 1978, acrylic on canvas.](https://img.chicodasilva.org/jcc-028/chico-da-silva-fantastic-animals-1978-acrylic-on-canvas-42x60cm-joao-cunha-collection-jcc-028-chicodasilva.org-640.jpg)

[Download image](https://img.chicodasilva.org/jcc-028/chico-da-silva-fantastic-animals-1978-acrylic-on-canvas-42x60cm-joao-cunha-collection-jcc-028-chicodasilva.org-3200.jpg)

Description for blind and low-vision visitors

A horizontal composition on a mottled blue background. A large fantastic insect stretches across the canvas with its head at the left, lunging toward a smaller insect at the far left as if attacking it. It has a pink hooked snout, a large green-rimmed eye, two curling antennae and a fan of orange feather-shaped wings. Its segmented body is a patchwork of green, brown, grey and red patches covered in fine dotted texture, and many slender legs dangle below. A small spiky tuft and feather float near its open mouth, and the date and signature are inscribed at the lower left.

- **Artist:** [Chico da Silva](https://chicodasilva.org/en/biography/)
- **Year:** 1978
- **Technique:** Acrylic on canvas
- **Support:** Canvas
- **Dimensions:** 42 x 60 cm
- **Collection:** [João Cunha Collection](https://chicodasilva.org/en/about/)
- **Signature:** FOZILVA, lower left (reversed D and S)
- **Photo:** Eric Keki
- **Inventory no.:** [JCC-028](https://chicodasilva.org/id/jcc-028)
- **Article:** [The Final Years](https://chicodasilva.org/en/articles/final-years/)

## The signature

![Detail of the painted signature: «FOZILVA»](https://img.chicodasilva.org/signatures/chico-da-silva-signature-1978-jcc-028-chicodasilva.org-640.jpg)

*The canvas is signed “FOZILVA”, in the lower left corner. The D and the S are reversed, so it reads as the artist's usual signature, “F. D. Silva”.*

## Provenance

1.  The artist, Fortaleza, 1978
2.  Alceu Vieira Coutinho, private collection, Ceará
3.  Coleção Raimundo de Lavor Júnior, private collection
4.  Crivo Galeria de Arte, auction, São Paulo, 2025
5.  João Cunha Collection

## How to credit

[Photographs free to reuse, with credit (CC BY 4.0)](https://chicodasilva.org/en/about/#license)

Chico da Silva, “Fantastic Animals” (1978). Photo: Eric Keki, João Cunha Collection, CC BY 4.0. https://chicodasilva.org/id/jcc-028

The license covers the photograph, not the painting.

## Also on Wikimedia

-   [Wikidata item](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q140751154)
-   [File on Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chico_da_Silva_-_1978_-_Fantastic_Animals_-_Acrylic_on_canvas_-_42x60_cm_-_Jo%C3%A3o_Cunha_Collection.jpg)

## For IIIF viewers

-   [IIIF manifest](https://chicodasilva.org/iiif/jcc-028/manifest.json)