Shop art print and framed art Le Rhinocéros by Albrecht Dürer

Dürer's Rhinoceros is a woodcut by Albrecht Dürer dated 1515. The image is based on a written description and brief sketch by an unknown artist of an Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) that landed in Lisbon earlier that year. Dürer had never seen this rhinoceros, which was the first living individual to be seen in Europe since Roman times. Towards the end of 1515, the King of Portugal, Manuel I, sent the animal as a gift to Pope Leo X, but it died in a shipwreck off the coast of Italy in early 1516. A living rhinoceros was not seen again in Europe until a second Indian specimen arrived in Lisbon in 1577. Despite its anatomical inaccuracies, Dürer's engraving became very popular in Europe and was copied many times over the next three centuries. It was considered a realistic representation of a rhinoceros until the end of the 18th century. It was subsequently superseded by more accurate drawings and paintings, in particular representations of Clara the rhinoceros, which were exhibited throughout Europe in the 1740s and 1750s. Nevertheless, many artists, such as Salvador Dalí and Niki de Saint Phalle, continue to feel an undeniable fascination for this work by Albrecht Dürer, reproducing it in a variety of ways. In 1514, Afonso de Albuquerque, Governor of Portuguese India in Goa, sent two ambassadors to Muzaffar Shah II, Sultan of Cambay (modern Gujarat), to request the right to build a Portuguese fort on the island of Diu. The sultan did not agree, but sent the [...]

 

This artwork is a poster from the renaissance period. It belongs to the classical print & engraving style.

 

« Le Rhinocéros » is kept at Louvre, Paris, France.

 

Find the full description of Le Rhinocéros by Albrecht Dürer on Wikipedia.