ID: 700008536 Page link: http://vocab.getty.edu/page/cona/700008536	Record Type: Movable Work
Images: 1

Rhinocerus (Rhinoceros) (print (visual work); Print made by: Albrecht Dürer; 1515; British Museum (London, Greater London, England, United King...; 1895,0122.714;)

Note: First edition of a broadside on a rhinoceros; with a woodcut of a rhinoceros standing in profile to the right, and five lines letterpress above. This impression of the woodcut comes from the first edition of 1515, which was the only one to be printed in Dürer’s lifetime. Seven editions were printed from the block, the last of which, accompanied by a colour tone block, was issued after 1620 by Willem Janssen in Amsterdam. Dürer’s famous woodcut records the arrival of the first rhinoceros to reach Europe alive since the third century AD. It had been presented by the ruler of Gujarat, Sultan Muzafar II, to the governor of Portugese India, Alfonso d'Albuquerque, who sent it on to King Manuel I in Lisbon, where it arrived on 20 May, 1515. The appearance of a creature as exotic as this was the subject of massive interest

Titles:

Rhinocerus (Rhinoceros) (preferred,C,U,RP,English-P,U,U)

Catalog Level: item

Work Types:

print (visual work) [300041273] (preferred)

..... (Objects Facet, Visual and Verbal Communication (hierarchy name), Visual Works (hierarchy name), visual works (works), <visual works by material or technique>)

Classifications:

prints (preferred)

Creation Date: 1515

Creator Display:

Print made by: Albrecht Dürer [preferred,VP]

printmaker Dürer, Albrecht (German printmaker and painter, 1471-1528) [500115493]

Locations:

Current: British Museum (London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom) [500125180] Corporate Bodies (Corp. Body)

Repository Numbers: 1895,0122.714

Display Materials: letterpress and woodcut on paper

	woodcut (process) [300053296]
	.......(Activities Facet, Processes and Techniques (hierarchy name), <processes and techniques by specific type>, <image-making processes and techniques>, <printing and printing processes and techniques>, printing processes, relief printing processes)

	letterpress printing [300178926]
	.......(Activities Facet, Processes and Techniques (hierarchy name), <processes and techniques by specific type>, <image-making processes and techniques>, <printing and printing processes and techniques>, printing processes, relief printing processes)

	paper (fiber product) [300014109]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by form>, <materials by physical form>, <fiber and fiber by product>, <fiber by product>)

	ink [300015012]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by function>, coating (material), <coating by form>)

Dimensions: woodcut: 212 x 296 mm; whole sheet: 248 x 317 mm

Cultures:

German (preferred)

General Subject:

animals (preferred)

Specific Subjects:

	rhinoceros [300250315]
	.....(Agents Facet, Living Organisms (hierarchy name), living organisms (entities), Eukaryota (domain), Animalia (kingdom), Chordata (phylum), Vertebrata (subphylum), Mammalia (class), Perissodactyla (order)) (AAT)

Provenance: Donated by: William Mitchell; Acquisition date 1895 Exhibited: 1977 London, BM, Animals in Art 1992 Feb-Mar, Atami, Moa Museum of Art, World Wildlife Fund Exh 1995 Jun-Oct, BM, 'German Renaissance Prints, 1490-1550', no.35 1996 Jun-Aug, Canterbury, Royal Mus and AG, German Renaissance Prints 1996 Nov-Dec, Edinburgh, NG of Scotland, German Renaissance Prints 1997 Jan-Mar, Cardiff, Nat Mus of Wales, German Renaissance Prints 1997 Apr-May, Llandudno, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Germ. Ren. Prints 1997 Oct-Dec, Norwich, Sainsbury Centre, German Renaissance Prints 1999/2000 Nov-Jan, Ghent, St. Peter's Abbey, 'Carolus' 2002/3 Dec-Mar, London BM, Dürer and his Legacy, no.243 2004 Jun-Jul, Madrid, 'LaCaixa', Ferdinand Columbus 2004 Oct-Dec, Seville, Salon Alto del Apeadero, Ferdinand Columbus 2005 London BM, Columbus 2006 London BM, Masterpieces of the British Museum, BBC series 2010 Sept - December, London BM, History of the World 2010-2011, London, BM/BBC, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'

Inscriptions: Signed, dated, and titled on the block. The print has five lines of tex talong the upper edge beginning: 'Nach Christus gepurt. 1513. Jar. Adi. i. May. Hat man dem grossmechtigen Kunig von Portugall Emanuell gen Lysabona pracht aus India ein sollich lebendig Thier. Das nennten sie Rhinoceros...' (translation in full: 'On 1 May 1513 [this should read 1515] was brought from India to the great and powerful king Emanuel of Portugal at Lisbon a live animal called a rhinoceros. His form is here represented. It has the colour of a speckled tortoise and it is covered with thick scales. It is like an elephant in size, but lower on its legs and almost invulnerable. It has a strong sharp horn on its nose which it sharpens on stones. The stupid animal is the elephant’s deadly enemy. The elephant is very frightened of it as, when they meet, it runs with its head down between its front legs and gores the stomach of the elephant and throttles it, and the elephant cannot fend it off. Because the animal is so well armed, there is nothing that the elephant can do to it. It is also said that the rhinoceros is fast, lively and cunning.’ )

State: 1/7

Related Works:

	study is .... Rhinoceros [700008537]
	..........drawing (visual work); Drawn by: Albrecht Dürer; 1515;

List/Hierarchical Position:

..... Movable Works

.......... Movable Works by class: drawings, paintings, prints, other two-dimensional media

..... Conceptual Works

.......... Conceptual Works by class: for movable works

............... Rhinocerus (Rhinoceros)

Sources and Contributors:
Rhinocerus (Rhinoceros)	........ [VP]
	........ British Museum [online] (1999-)

Subject: ....... [VP]

Note:
English	..... [VP]
	..... British Museum [online] (1999-)