The Other Rhinoceroses That Dürer Did Not Know

What is it about?

We have compared Dürer’s rhinoceros of 1515 with the actual Indian species, Rhinoceros unicornis, and with other 16th century representations of the animal from Italy, Portugal, and Germany. Special attention deserved a drawing from 1515 found in the Vatican Library, which could derive from the sketch used by Dürer, and the woodcut of Burgkmair, also from 1515, which could derive from the same sketch and/or from Dürer's rhinoceros. The comparisons lead to conclude that Dürer's rhinoceros is not as fanciful as most authors claim, and that Burgkmair's is less realistic than it seems. Moreover, the images of rhinoceros of the 16th century can be classified into three well-differentiated types, which refer to corresponding sketches that arrived respectively to Germany and Italy, while one remained in Portugal. The comparative analysis of the images has allowed us to build a genealogy that relates the three prototypes and their descendants.

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