The Rhinoceros

Museum record 30283: The Rhinoceros by Albrecht Dürer. A verified entry point for discovery.

What to notice

For The Rhinoceros (record 30283), start with modern, expressive, atmospheric. Compare the focal subject, edge treatment, and atmosphere before moving on.

Discover

Albrecht Dürer never saw a rhinoceros in real life. Although the letterpress text atop this broadsheet suggests otherwise, he in fact copied the woodcut from a drawing and a description given by an eyewitness before the ship carrying this gift for the king of Portugal sank on the way from India. Nonetheless, despite the lack of direct observation, the resulting image was immensely popular and formed many people’s ideas of the animal’s appearance. As with religious images from this period, the replication…