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| chuck norris created th durers rhinoceros. he put a lot of thought into making this creature | |||
| {{featured article}} | |||
| {{Artwork | |||
| | image_file=Dürer rhino full.png | |||
| | title=The Rhinoceros | |||
| | artist=Albrecht Dürer | |||
| | year=1515 | |||
| | type=woodcut | |||
| | height=21.4 | |||
| | width=29.8 | |||
| }} | |||
| '''''Dürer's Rhinoceros''''' is the name commonly given to a ] created by ] ] and ] ] in 1515.<ref>Some sources erroneously say 1513, copying a typographical error made by Dürer in one of his original drawings and perpetuated in his woodcut. (Bedini, p.121.)</ref> The image was based on a written description and brief sketch by an unknown artist of an ] that had arrived in ] earlier that year. Dürer never saw the actual ], which was the first living example seen in Europe since ]. In late 1515, the King of Portugal, ], sent the animal as a gift for ], but it died in a ] off the coast of ] in early 1516. A live rhinoceros was not seen again in ] until a ] arrived from ] at the court of ] in ] around 1579.<ref>Clarke, chapter 2.</ref><ref>A street in Madrid was named ''Abada'' (rhinoceros in Portuguese) after this animal, that had a curious life too: . (in Spanish)</ref> | |||
| Dürer's woodcut is not an entirely accurate representation of a rhinoceros. He depicts an animal with hard plates that cover its body like sheets of ], with a ] at the throat, a solid-looking ], and ]s along the seams; he also places a small twisted horn on its back, and gives it scaly legs and saw-like rear quarters. None of these features is present in a real rhinoceros.<ref name=unicamp/><ref name="kdpublish"/> Despite its anatomical inaccuracies, Dürer's woodcut became very popular in Europe and was copied many times in the following three centuries. It was regarded as a true representation of a rhinoceros into the late 18th century. Eventually, it was supplanted by more realistic drawings and paintings, particularly those of ], who toured Europe in the 1740s and 1750s. It has been said of Dürer's woodcut: "probably no animal picture has exerted such a profound influence on the arts".<ref name="Clarke20">Quoted in Clarke, p.20.</ref> | |||
| ==The rhinoceros== | |||
| ] published in Rome in July 1515. (Biblioteca Colombina, Seville).]] | |||
| ] of ], from a pamphlet, issued under the ] "Philomathes" (], c. 1514)]] | |||
| On 20 May 1515, an Indian rhinoceros arrived in Lisbon from the ]. In early 1514, ], governor of ], sent ambassadors to ] ], ruler of ] (modern ]), to seek permission to build a fort on the island of ]. The mission returned without an agreement, but diplomatic gifts were exchanged, including the rhinoceros.<ref>Bedini, p.112.</ref> At that time, the rulers of different countries would occasionally send each other exotic animals to be kept in a ]. The rhinoceros was already well accustomed to being kept in captivity. Albuquerque decided to forward the gift, known by its ] name of ''ganda'', and its Indian keeper, named Ocem, to King ]. It sailed on the ''Nossa Senhora da Ajuda'',<ref>Clarke, p.16.</ref> which left ] in January 1515.<ref>Bedini, p.113.</ref> The ship, captained by ],<ref name="lambe">, Projecto Lambe-Lambe {{pt icon}}.</ref> and two companion vessels, all loaded with exotic ]s, sailed across the ], around the ] and north through the ], stopping briefly in ], ] and the ]. | |||
| After a relatively fast voyage of 120 days, the rhinoceros was finally unloaded in ], near the site where the ] ] was under construction. The tower was later decorated with ]s shaped as rhinoceros heads under its ]s.<ref>See Clarke, p.19, for a photograph of a gargoyle.</ref> A rhinoceros had not been seen in Europe since ] times: it had become something of a ], occasionally conflated in ] with the "monoceros" (]), so the arrival of a living example created a sensation. In the context of the ], it was a piece of ] which had been rediscovered, like a statue or an inscription. | |||
| The animal was examined by scholars and the curious, and letters describing the fantastic creature were sent to correspondents throughout Europe. The earliest known image of the animal illustrates a ''poemetto'' by ] ], published in ] on 13 July 1515, fewer than eight weeks after its arrival in Lisbon.<ref>Giovanni Giacomo Penni, ''Forma e natura e costumi de lo rinocerote'' (...). See Ugo Serani, ''Etiopicas'' 2 (2006) ISSN 1698-689X for the original text in Italian and a translation into Spanish.</ref> The only known copy of the original published poem is held by the ] in ]. | |||
| The exotic animal was housed in King Manuel's menagerie at the ] in Lisbon, separate from his ]s and other large beasts at the ]. On ], 3 June, Manuel arranged a fight between the rhinoceros and a young elephant from his collection, to test the account by ] that the elephant and the rhinoceros are bitter enemies.<ref name="pliny"> and of Chapter 29, Book VIII of ]'s '']''.</ref> The rhinoceros advanced slowly and deliberately towards its foe; the elephant, unaccustomed to the noisy crowd that turned out to witness the spectacle, fled the field in panic before a single blow was struck.<ref>Bedini, p.118.</ref><ref>, from the ].</ref> | |||
| ], 1518–1519, a ] on the second floor of the ] in the ]. A rhinoceros appears <!-- in profile -->to the right of the tree, with an elephant ]] to the left.]] | |||
| Manuel decided to give the rhinoceros as a gift to the ] ], ]. The King was keen to curry favour with the Pope, to maintain the papal grants of exclusive possession to the new lands that his naval forces had been exploring in the ] since ] discovered the sea route to India around ] in 1498. The previous year, the Pope had been very pleased with Manuel's gift of a ], also from India, which the Pope had named ]. Together with other precious gifts of silver plate and spices, the rhinoceros, with its new collar of green ] decorated with flowers, embarked in December 1515 for the voyage from the ] to ].<ref>Bedini, p.127.</ref> The vessel passed near ] in early 1516. King ] was returning from ] in ], and requested a viewing of the beast. The Portuguese vessel stopped briefly at an island off Marseilles,<ref>The ] consists of four main islands. Bedini, p.128, nominates either ] or ]; the other possibilities are the small island of ], now occupied by the ], or ].</ref> where the rhinoceros disembarked to be observed by the King on 24 January. | |||
| After resuming its journey, the ship was wrecked in a sudden storm as it passed through the narrows of ], north of ] on the coast of ]. The rhinoceros, chained and shackled to the deck to keep it under control, was unable to swim to safety and drowned. The carcass of the rhinoceros was recovered near ] and its hide was returned to Lisbon, where it was ]. Some reports say that the mounted skin was sent to Rome, arriving in February 1516, to be exhibited ''impagliato'' (Italian for "stuffed with straw"), although such a feat would have challenged 16th-century methods of taxidermy. In any event, the rhinoceros did not cause a popular sensation in Rome like the living beast had in Lisbon, although a rhinoceros was depicted in contemporary paintings in Rome by ] and ].<ref>Bedini, p.132.</ref><ref name="hyena">, Manda Clair Jost, 2002 (PDF, 21 pages).</ref> | |||
| If a stuffed rhinoceros arrived in Rome, its fate remains unknown: it may have been removed to ] by the Medici, or it may have been destroyed in the ] in 1527. Its story was the basis for ]'s 1996 novel ''The Pope's Rhinoceros''.<ref> of ] from the ]; ], 1996, ''The Pope's Rhinoceros: A Novel'', Harmony, ISBN 051759532X.</ref> | |||
| ==Dürer's woodcut== | |||
| ], 1515, now held by the ]. The manuscript caption gives the date of the arrival of the rhinoceros in Lisbon as "1513" .<ref>Clarke, caption to colour plate I, p.181.</ref>]] | |||
| ], a ]n merchant and ], saw the rhinoceros in Lisbon shortly after it arrived and wrote a letter describing it to a friend in ] in June 1515. The original letter in German has not survived, but a copy in Italian is held in the ] in Florence.<ref>Bedini, p.120 and fn.10.</ref> A second letter of unknown authorship was sent from Lisbon to Nuremberg at around the same time, enclosing a sketch by an unknown artist. Dürer saw the second letter and sketch in Nuremberg. Without ever seeing the rhinoceros himself, Dürer made two ] drawings,<ref>One later acquired by Sir ] and now held by the ].</ref> and then a ] was created from the second drawing, the process making the print a reversed reflection of the drawing.<ref name="hyena"/><ref>The woodcut was, per Quammen, p.204, cut on the block by a specialist craftsman known as a ''Formschneider'', for Dürer's approval. This may well have been ], who Dürer was using on other projects at this time, especially those with inscriptions.</ref> | |||
| The ] inscription on the woodcut, drawing largely from Pliny's account,<ref name="pliny"/> reads: | |||
| {{cquote|On the first of May in the year 1513 AD , the powerful King of Portugal, Manuel of Lisbon, brought such a living animal from India, called the rhinoceros. This is an accurate representation. It is the colour of a speckled tortoise,<ref>Bedini, p.121; some versions translate ''Krot'' as "]", but ''Schildkrot'' most likely refers to a ].</ref> and is almost entirely covered with thick scales. It is the size of an elephant but has shorter legs and is almost invulnerable. It has a strong pointed horn on the tip of its nose, which it sharpens on stones. It is the mortal enemy of the elephant. The elephant is afraid of the rhinoceros, for, when they meet, the rhinoceros charges with its head between its front legs and rips open the elephant's stomach, against which the elephant is unable to defend itself. The rhinoceros is so well-armed that the elephant cannot harm it. It is said that the rhinoceros is fast, impetuous and cunning.<ref>Rough translation of the German original. See also a French translation in the doctoral thesis of Bruno Faidutti at l']: , chapter 3.2, illustration 10, November 1996. {{fr icon}}; and a similar translation in Clarke, p.20.</ref>}} | |||
| ] match up well to the plates of ] depicted by ].]] | |||
| Dürer's woodcut is not an entirely accurate representation of a rhinoceros. He depicts an animal with hard plates that cover its body like sheets of ], with a ] at the throat, a solid-looking ], and ]s along the seams; he also places a small twisted horn on its back, and gives it scaly legs and saw-like rear quarters. None of these features is present in a real rhinoceros.<ref name=unicamp>, ], ].</ref><ref name="kdpublish">, Kallisti Digital Publishing, 7 March 2003.</ref> It is possible that a ] was created for the rhinoceros's fight against the elephant in Portugal, and that these features depicted by Dürer are parts of the armour.<ref>Suggested by ] (2004), ''Clara's Grand Tour: Travels with a Rhinoceros in Eighteenth-century Europe'', Atlantic Monthly Press, ISBN 184354010X, a study of ]; however, there is no mention of this in Bedini.</ref> Alternatively, Dürer's "armour" may represent the heavy folds of thick skin of an Indian rhinoceros, or, as with the other inaccuracies, may simply be misunderstandings or creative additions by Dürer.<ref>Dürer was living near the ]'s quarter in Nuremberg, ''Schmeidegasse'', and was designing armour at about the same time; this aspect may therefore be a creative conceit. (Clarke, p.20.)</ref> Dürer also draws a scaly texture over the body of the animal, including the "armour". This may be Dürer's attempt to reflect the rough and almost hairless hide of the Indian rhinoceros, which has ]-like bumps covering its upper legs and shoulders. On the other hand, his depiction of the texture may represent ] induced by the rhinoceros' close confinement during the four-month journey by ship from India to Portugal.<ref> on a plate from ]'s ''Mammals'', folio 131 verso, from the Humanities Media Interaction Project, ], ].</ref> | |||
| ] drawing of the rhinoceros, by ], 1515, now held by the ], ]]] | |||
| A second woodcut was created by ] in ] around the same time as Dürer's in Nuremberg. Burgkmair corresponded with merchants in Lisbon and Nuremberg, but it is not clear whether he had access to a letter or sketch as Dürer did, perhaps even Dürer's sources, or saw the animal himself in Portugal.<ref name="Bedini121">Bedini, p.121.</ref> His image is truer to life, omitting Dürer's more fanciful additions and including the shackles and chain used to restrain the rhinoceros;<ref name="Bedini121"/> however, Dürer's woodcut is more powerful and eclipsed Burgkmair's in popularity. Only one copy of Burgkmair's image has survived,<ref>Held by the ], ].</ref> whereas Dürer's original single block print was copied many times. Dürer produced a first printing of his woodcut in 1515, distinguished by only five lines of text in the heading,<ref name="lambe"/> and many further printings followed after Dürer's death in 1528, including two printings in the 1540s, and a further two in the late 16th century.<ref name="Clarke23">Clarke, p.23.</ref> Later printings have six lines of descriptive text.<ref name="lambe"/> A tone block was created around 1620 to add a '']'' effect to Dürer's original single block print (seen in the printing by Willem Janssen in ]).<ref name="Clarke23"/><ref>, Richard Anderton, ], at the 3rd Impact International Printmaking Conference, ], ], 2003.</ref> The original wood block continued to be used, even though later printings are marred by ] holes and a crack through the rhino's legs.<ref name="quammen206">Quammen, p.206.</ref> | |||
| ], from ]'s ''Dialogo dell'impresse militari et amorosi''.]] | |||
| Despite its errors, the image remained very popular,<ref name="kdpublish"/> and was taken to be an accurate representation of a rhinoceros until the late 18th century. Dürer may have deliberately chosen to create a woodcut, rather than a more refined and detailed ] engraving, to ensure it would be suitable for mass-market printing.<ref name="quammen206"/> Images derived from it were included in naturalist texts, including ]'s ''Cosmographiae'' (1544), ]'s '']'' (1551), ]'s ''Histoire of Foure-footed Beastes'' (1607) and many others. A rhinoceros that was clearly based on Dürer's woodcut was chosen by ] as his emblem in June 1536, with the motto "Non buelvo sin vencer" (old Spanish for "I shall not return without victory").<ref>Bedini, p.192.</ref> A sculpture of a rhinoceros based on Dürer's image was placed at the base of a 70-foot (21 m) high ] designed by ] and erected in front of the Church of the Sepulchre in the ] in Paris in 1549 to welcome the arrival of the new King of France, ].<ref>Bedini, p.193.</ref> A similar rhinoceros, in relief, decorates a panel in one of the bronze west doors of ]. The rhinoceros was depicted in numerous other paintings and sculptures, and became a popular decoration for ]. The popularity of the inaccurate Dürer image remained undiminished despite an Indian rhinoceros spending eight years in ], from 1579 to 1587 (although a few examples of a print of the Madrid rhinoceros created by ] in ] in 1586, and derivative works, have survived), and the exhibition of a live rhinoceros in London a century later, from 1684–86, and of a second individual after 1739.<ref>Clarke, chapter 2 and 3.</ref> | |||
| ] rhinoceros in the Porcelain Museum in ], based on a version sculpted by ] around 1730.<ref> ''Rhinocéros'', 1730 by Johann Gottlieb Kirchner National Ceramic Museum, Sèvres</ref> It is clearly based on Dürer's image, with a prominent "Dürer horn".]] | |||
| ] in ], Marbella, Spain.]] | |||
| The pre-eminent position of Dürer's image and its derivatives declined from the mid- to late-18th century, when more live rhinoceroses were transported to Europe, shown to the curious public, and depicted in more accurate representations. ] painted a life-size portrait of ] in 1749, and ] painted a large portrait of a rhinoceros in London around 1790. Both of these paintings were more accurate than Dürer's woodcut, and a more realistic conception of the rhinoceros gradually started to displace Dürer's image in the public imagination. In particular, Oudry's painting was the inspiration for a plate in ]'s encyclopedic ''Histoire naturelle'', which was widely copied.<ref>Clarke, p.64.</ref> In 1790, ]'s travelogue ''Travels to discover the source of the ]'' dismissed Dürer's work as "wonderfully ill-executed in all its parts" and "the origin of all the monstrous forms under which that animal has been painted, ever since". Even so, Bruce's own illustration of the African ], which is noticeably different in appearance to the Indian rhinoceros, still shares conspicuous inaccuracies with Dürer's work.<ref>{{cite book|author=Alperson, Philip A|title=The Philosophy of the Visual Arts|year=1992|publisher=Oxford University Press US|isbn=0195059751|page=80}}</ref> ] ] argues that Dürer's "scales and imbricated plates" became a necessary element of depicting the animal, even to those who might know better, because "they knew that only these conventionalized graphic signs could denote «rhinoceros» to the person interpreting the iconic sign." He also notes that the skin of a rhinoceros is rougher than it visually appears and that such plates and scales portray this non-visual information to a degree.<ref>{{cite book|author=Eco, Umberto|title=Theory of Semiotics|year=1978|publisher=Indiana University Press|id=ISBN 253202175|page=205}}</ref> | |||
| Until the late 1930s, Dürer's image appeared in school textbooks in ] as a faithful image of the rhinoceros;<ref name="Clarke20"/> in ], the Indian rhinoceros is still called the ''Panzernashorn'', or "armoured rhinoceros". It remains a powerful artistic influence, and was the inspiration for ]'s 1956 sculpture, ''Rinoceronte vestido con puntillas'' (Rhinoceros dressed in ]), which has been displayed at ], in ], ] since 2004. | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
| <div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count: 2; column-count: 2;"> | |||
| <references/> | |||
| </div> | |||
| ==References== | |||
| * {{cite book |last=Bedini |first=Silvano A. |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The Pope's Elephant |year=1997 |publisher= Carcanet Press |location=Manchester |isbn=1857542770 }} (particularly Chapter 5, "The Ill-Fated Rhinoceros") | |||
| * {{cite book |last=Clarke |first=T. H. |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The Rhinoceros from Dürer to Stubbs: 1515–1799 | year=1986 |publisher=Sotheby's Publications |location=London |isbn=0856673226 }} (particularly Chapter 1, "The first Lisbon or 'Dürer Rhinoceros' of 1515") | |||
| * ] (2000), ''The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder'', Scribner, ISBN 0684837285 (particularly p.201–209, ''The Boilerplate Rhino'', previously published in this "Natural Acts" column in ], June 1993) | |||
| : ''This article was originally based on a translation of ] of the ], dated 2006-07-18'' | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| * | |||
| *, by ], from ] | |||
| * in ] ] ] by (under a ] license) | |||
| * by ], in the collection of the ]. | |||
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Revision as of 22:33, 17 January 2010
chuck norris created th durers rhinoceros. he put a lot of thought into making this creature