One of Dürer’s sketches of his Rhinoceros is housed in the British Museum. Even after more correct rhinoceros drawings were made, Dürer’s Rhinoceros remained popular. It is speculated that he used the woodcut method for this print because it was more cost effective for a work that would see multiple printings.Īfter the events of Dürer’s Rhinoceros, another live rhinoceros would not be seen in Western Europe again for over fifty years. The artist first draws the sketch on paper, and then the work is cut into a wood block that can be used to make multiple prints. This is a woodcut executed in 1515 by German painter and printmaker, Albrecht Drer. Woodcut printing came into widespread use in Western Europe in about 1400 A.D. The head is rhinoceros-shaped with elegant cupped ears and a very large nasal horn. This plating also covers the animal’s haunches. Its body, while of similar shape to actual rhinoceroses, is depicted as covered in heavy horned plate. The rhinoceros is drawn as a four legged creature with scaly legs ending in three-toed, hoofed feet. The “u” in “Rhinocerus” is pointed like a v, due to typographical conventions of the time. Above the animal’s head to the right is printed “1515”, “Rhinocerus”, and the “artist’s monogram”, all on separate lines. The print measures 8.4 inches by 11.7 inches and is a single animal figure with descriptive text in German above. Dürer never saw the actual rhinocerous but worked from a sketch done by another artist. The animal had several different homes before drowning in a shipwreck.
![dürer dürer](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2B00WN2/germany-drers-rhinoceros-woodcut-print-by-albrecht-durer-1471-1528-1515-albrecht-drer-21-may-1471-6-april-1528-was-a-german-painter-printmaker-and-theorist-from-nuremberg-his-prints-established-his-reputation-across-europe-when-he-was-still-in-his-twenties-and-he-has-been-conventionally-regarded-as-the-greatest-artist-of-the-northern-renaissance-ever-since-drers-introduction-of-classical-motifs-into-northern-art-through-his-knowledge-of-italian-artists-and-german-humanists-have-secured-his-reputation-as-one-of-the-most-important-figures-of-the-northern-renaissance-2B00WN2.jpg)
In 1515 A.D., King Manuel of Portugal received a rhinocerous from his ambassador in Cambay. HistoryĪfter the fall of the Roman Empire, Asian animals previously imported for circuses and gladitorial events became scarce or non-existent in Western Europe.
#Dürer's rhinoceros series
As an illustration of an animal at the center of a famous series of events, the woodcut was highly popular in the artist’s lifetime.
![dürer dürer](https://assets.catawiki.nl/assets/2015/10/16/2/1/7/2175ffec-740d-11e5-986b-8d87439fe011.jpg)
In this regard, Dürer may be viewed as a kind of Ahab-like figure, meaning one who sought the whale for his own desires and then fell victim to its inscrutable curse.Dürer’s Rhinoceros is a woodcut created by Albrecht Dürer in 1515 A.D.
![dürer dürer](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LXe7avojDC0/VKf-aJ8o0GI/AAAAAAAAEH0/4ysO0ZC-T7c/s1600/Gulielmi%2BPisonis%2B-%2Bdetail.jpg)
As lore has it, it was this journey that led to Dürer’s death for he died of a fever soon after. By the time he arrived, however, the whale had washed back to sea. As with many of the seemingly subtle references in Moby-Dick, the passing mention of Dürer is loaded with significance: In 1520 the renowned illustrator, upon hearing of a beached whale, an animal he wanted to illustrate but had never seen, traveled for multiple days by horse and boat to witness it. In chapter 57, “Of Whales in Paint in Teeth in Wood in Sheet-Iron in Stone in Mountains in Stars,” Ishmael praises the art of sailors and their representation of whales and whaling as being “full of barbaric spirit and suggestiveness, as the prints of that fine Dutch savage, Albert Dürer.” What makes sailors’ and Dürer’s whale illustrations more accurate or praise-worthy? They illustrate with artistry and imagination, not necessarily “accuracy.” In other words, instead of attempting to be empirical, they are poetic. haeredum, excudebat Jobus Hertz, 1667ĭürer's Rhinoceros, seen replicated here, is perhaps Albert Dürer's most famous illustration. Herbipoli (Würzburg): Sumptibus Johannis Andreae Endteri & Wolfgangi jun.