Various authors including Lambert le Tort, Alexandre de Bernai (de Paris), and others, Romance of Alexander; Folio #: fol. 130r, 1338-1344. Image and original data provided by the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.

Various authors including Lambert le Tort, Alexandre de Bernai (de Paris), and others, Romance of Alexander; Folio #: fol. 130r, 1338-1344. Image and original data provided by the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Lunar New Year! The Chinese Year of the Goat begins February 19, 2015 and lasts through March 5, 2015.

You might see references to this being the year of the sheep, or even of the ram. This stems from the fact that the Chinese use one character (yang in Mandarin) for these three different horned animals, but it seems that the goat is the prefered choice by the majority of Chinese people.

While in the west we usually think of goats as stubborn, people born in a Year of the Goat (1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, and, of course, 2015) are generally believed to be mild-mannered, kindhearted, and quiet.

We’ve put together a gallery of goat highlights from the Artstor Digital Library from sources as varied as the Bodleian Library, George Eastman House, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, The Illustrated Bartsch, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Scala Archives. Enjoy, and happy New Year!

You may also be interested in:
Happy Chinese New Year – Year of the Snake!
Happy Chinese New Year – Year of the Dragon!