ANIMALS
Documentaries
DURER'S RHINOCEROS AND STUBBS'S skeletal horse are superb
affirmations of the power of drawing as a recorder and
communicator of knowledge. The first live rhinoceros to reach
Europe came from India in May 1515, a gift to the Portuguese
King. He in turn sent the mysterious creature to the Pope
via Marseilles at the request of the King of France. Sailing to
Rome, the ship was lost, but the drowned animal washed
ashore. Carefully stuffed, it continued its journey to Rome.
Meanwhile, a drawing of it arrived in Nuremberg, the home of
Durer. He studied the image and drew his own interpretation.
Converted into a print, Durer's image changed eager hands
until it was known across Europe. It was to become the
animal's only accepted likeness for 250 years, inspiring
countless works of art and so touching people's imaginations
that later, when more accurate portrayals were made without
armor and scales, they were rejected. Stubbs's Anatomy of the
Horse achieved similar documentary status. Unsurpassed, it is
still consulted by veterinarians today, years after its publication.
ALBRECHT DURER
German Renaissance painter, draftsman,
printmaker, naturalist, writer, and mathematician.
Durer traveled widely to study at different European
schools of art, filled journals with ideas and
observations, and wrote four books on proportion.Life-like This is Durer's original quill-and-ink drawing made
after an anonymous Portuguese drawing. It is such a lifelike
triumph of imagination and intelligence that for centuries
zoologists never questioned its authority. Contemporary texts
related accounts of the beast as the mortal enemy of the
elephant and rare relative of the "more common" unicorn.Original Ink Drawing of a Rhinoceros
1515
103 / 4 x 16^1 / 2 in (274x420 mm)
ALBRECHT DURER