Minneapolis Institute of Art
Rhinoceros
Enea Vico; Designer: After Albrecht DürerLinkedCulture matchlcp-199bf14e3284
- Date
- 1548
- Medium
- Engraving
- Department
- European Art
- Institution
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Object ID
- 52502
From the Minneapolis Institute of Art record
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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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- The William M. Ladd Collection Gift of Herschel V. Jones, 1916
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