071 Durer's Rhinoceros

Although Albrecht Dürer had never seen a rhinoceros in the flesh when he made this woodcut it is nonetheless based on descriptions of a real rhinoceros—one that in 1515 CE travelled to Europe from Asia. It was portrayed by Dürer in this famous print, which he made in Nuremberg. You can see the artist’s initials on your screen now.

The European colonial presence in India began in the first few decades of the sixteenth century. It was the Portuguese who first established a permanent base there, thanks in large part to a governor named Alfonso de Albuquerque. In 1514 Albuquerque approached the Sultan of Gujarat to ask for permission to use an Indian island. He lavished him with presents to try and win his favour, and in return the sultan gave him a live rhinoceros. Alburquerque, not knowing what to do with the animal, sent it on a ship back to Europe, as a present to the Portuguese king in Lisbon.

The journey began in January 1515. The rhino was accompanied by his Indian keeper, Osem, and lots of rice for him to eat. They only made three stops on the way, arriving in Lisbon on May 20th. People flocked to see the rhinoceros—it caused quite a stir, since rhinoceros had not been seen in Europe since they had appeared in ancient Roman amphitheatres more than a thousand years earlier.

Portugal needed the support of the Catholic Church if it was to make their imperial dreams a reality, and so the Portuguese king sent the rhinoceros on to the Pope as a gift. Unfortunately the story of the rhinoceros has a sad ending, because it never made it to Italy. Its ship was wrecked on the way and the animal drowned. But it lived on by reputation – despite certain inaccuracies, Dürer’s print endures as one of the most iconic images of a rhinoceros in existence.