Sadly, the ship carrying the new gift sank before it reached Rome. So convincing was Dürer's fanciful creation that for the next 300 years European illustrators borrowed from his woodcut, even after they had seen living rhinoceroses without plates and scales.ĭom Manuel sent the rhinoceros to Pope Leo X in Rome, who had much admired 'Hanno', the elephant the king had sent him the year before. 171), a very good impression of this rare and important woodcut, first edition (of eight), with the complete letterpress text above, with thread margins or trimmed to the borderline at left and right, trimmed just inside the borderline below and to the text. Perhaps these features interpret lost sketches, or even the text, which states, ' has the colour of a speckled tortoise and it is covered with thick scales'. 241) woodcut with letterpress text, 1515, watermark Anchor in Circle (M. He has covered the creature's legs with scales and the body with hard, patterned plates. Durer did not see the rhino himself, so that can attribute to some of the fictional aspects of his woodcut rhino. Durer’s rhinoceros was inspired by a detailed letter and sketch of the live rhinoceros. No rhinoceros had been seen in Europe for over 1000 years, so Dürer had to work solely from these reports. In May of 1515, a live rhinoceros came to Europe as a gift from the governor of Portuguese India.
The elephant apparently turned and fled.Ī description of the rhinoceros soon reached Nuremberg, presumably with sketches, from which Dürer prepared this drawing and woodcut. On arrival in Lisbon, Dom Manuel arranged for the rhinoceros to fight one of his elephants (according to Pliny the Elder's Historia Naturalis ('Natural History') (AD 77), the elephant and rhinoceros are bitter enemies).
DÜRER'S RHINOCEROS FULL
The rhinoceros travelled in a ship full of spices. Albuquerque passed the gift on to Dom Manuel I, the king of Portugal. The fame of the rhino is such that its coming even made a noise in the Spanish, French and Italian regions.Įspecially because of the excellent trade relations between Portuguese and Germans, a certain Albrecht Dürer, painter, got to know an animal that he will represent without having ever seen it.The ruler of Gujarat, Sultan Muzafar II (1511-26) had presented it to Alfonso d'Albuquerque, the governor of Portuguese India.
In the royal menagerie of Manuel 1st, the perissodactyl attracts curious onlookers who come to look at the beast named Ulysse. No specimen of this kind had set foot in the old Europe for over twelve centuries and the time of the Roman games. May 20, 1515, the Nossa Senhora da Ajuda ship docked on the banks of Belém in Lisbon and the landing of the rhino undoubtedly made the biggest impression.
Thus in January 1515, Alfonso de Albuquerque, governor of Portuguese India in Goa, is embarking towards Lisbon among ivory furniture and other prestigious gifts, a rhinoceros, royal gift of Muzaffar Shah II, Sultan of Cambay. The exchanges between representatives of Portuguese monarchy and Indian sultans then become commonplace to resolve conflicts, seal agreements or flatter elites.
With its full facade on the Atlantic Ocean, the Portugal and its browsers children, Vasco da Gama in mind, bypass the Cape of Good Hope to set foot on the Indian sand in 1498. In the heart of the sixteenth century, while trade and merchant ships master seas and oceans, it is extremely common to see these wedges filled with plants, spices and exotic animals to satisfy the curiosity of Europe.