The Monstrous Sow of Landser

Museum record 4055: The Monstrous Sow of Landser by Albrecht Dürer. A verified entry point for discovery.

What to notice

For The Monstrous Sow of Landser (record 4055), start with modern, expressive, atmospheric. Compare the focal subject, edge treatment, and atmosphere before moving on.

Discover

Just as he never saw the rhinoceros he portrayed in another woodcut, Albrecht Dürer never witnessed the female pig born at Landser in Germany in 1496 with two conjoined bodies. He did very likely read about it in a broadsheet with a rudimentary woodcut and a more extensive text description. His surprisingly realistic rendering of how the unseen pig—which died soon after birth—might have looked is similarly convincing but inaccurate. While the engraving does not insist on a religious interpretation, misbi…