He has covered the creature's legs with scales and the body with hard, patterned plates. No rhinoceros had been seen in Europe for over 1000 years, so Dürer had to work solely from these reports. The elephant apparently turned and fled.Ī description of the rhinoceros soon reached Nuremberg, presumably with sketches, from which Dürer prepared this drawing and woodcut. On arrival in Lisbon, Dom Manuel arranged for the rhinoceros to fight one of his elephants (according to Pliny the Elder's Historia Naturalis ('Natural History') (AD 77), the elephant and rhinoceros are bitter enemies). The rhinoceros travelled in a ship full of spices. Albuquerque passed the gift on to Dom Manuel I, the king of Portugal. The ruler of Gujarat, Sultan Muzafar II (1511-26) had presented it to Alfonso d'Albuquerque, the governor of Portuguese India.
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