Even art made before Darwin's theories became subject to new Darwinian interpretations. This scene, painted a few years before the publication of On the Origin of Species, was initially received as the aftermath of a battle between two heroic combatants (contrasted by the cowardly fox).

But seen through a Darwinian lens, the scene represents the heartlessness of nature: The stags have died in a fruitless struggle driven by their own instincts, while the approaching fox and hawk see only their next meal.

Morning by Edwin Landseer (1853)