Minneapolis Institute of Art

Rhinoceros

Enea Vico; Designer: After Albrecht Dürer

Date

1548

Medium

Engraving

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

The original of this fantastical print, seen here in a copy by Enea Vico, was made by Albrecht Dürer in 1515. Amazingly, Dürer never saw the animal, but made his woodcut from secondhand information. In 1515 Sultan Muzafar of Cambay made a gift of an Indian rhinoceros to King Emmanuel of Portugal, who in turn shipped it to Pope Leo X. En route, however, the ship capsized, and the animal drowned. When the beast washed ashore, it was stuffed and sent on to the Vatican. Dürer's only basis for crafting a likeness was a description and sketch sent by someone in Lisbon. Yet for centuries the print represented most people's idea of what a rhinoceros looked like. Italy, Europe

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