Because it is precisely when this art knows its greatest evolutions that appear the individualized animal effigies, autonomous for some of them. In their quest for individuation, in the construction of their own image, human beings have indeed felt the need to define themselves in relation to other living beings, animals in particular. The humanist conception of the order and hierarchy of living beings will be at the heart of the exchanges, in particular the question of the rank that the men of the first modernity wished to occupy within nature. The presentations will define the criteria for thinking about and characterizing the notion of animal portraiture during the Renaissance, between science and idealization. The problem of the animal as a model for man will be considered in the light of theology, philosophy, literature, heraldry and physiognomy, with particular attention to the double effigies depicting human and animal, animal self-portraits and fantasized, exotic or marvelous animals.