The Rhinoceros

Prints and Drawings

1515

Albrecht Dürer
German, 1471-1528

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 of print gave this woodcut its own type of truth.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Albrecht Dürer
Title: The Rhinoceros
Place: Germany (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1515
Medium: Woodcut in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions: Image: 21.5 × 30 cm (8 1/2 × 11 13/16 in.); Sheet: 24.8 × 30.5 cm (9 13/16 × 12 1/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer
Reference Number: 1939.247
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/30283/manifest.json

Bartsch 136

Meder 273 III/VIII

Strauss 176

Schoch, Mende, & Scherbaum 241

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Artist

Title

Place

Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.