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Matsya, the first avatar of Vishnu: Half man (or woman) half fish. Ranging from a fish with human head and arms, through a mermaid or merman, to looking like a human figure standing in the beak of a fish. The latter opposed to a human figure being swallowed by a whale, as was Jonah according to the bible.

Two pictures by Jacob van Meurs showing "Matsjas of Matx autaer, d'eerste". (Matsya first avatar) from L'Ambassade de la Compagnie Orientale, Netherlands, 1672.





To compare a picture showing Jonah being devoured by a fish:



Montanus (wrongly) used an earlier picture of Matsya to show the Japanese deity Kannon because of an association with Neptune (1669).



That was later reused by Van Schley(1758) [e.g. Histoire générale des Voyages by A. Prévost]





They are the earliest I could find and they are all Dutch. Presumably copies of Hindu images. The only older image I found was a figure from the 11th-12th Century. Matsya seen as a fish with human arms:



So where are all these Hindu images of between the 11th and 18th Century that surely will exist?
Ger Hungerink 9 Augsut 2019