Until Clara’s arrival, all that Europeans knew of her species was from a print made by Dürer in 1515. She was a hyped up, must-see cultural phenomenon, and Mout used print advertising and medals to pump that hype to the max. She prompted this sensational level of interest because no one in Europe had ever been able to see a real live rhinoceros. People touched, teased, admired, and studied Clara. Eventually, Clara died in London in 1758. Upon her return to the Netherlands, she lived in a field in the North district of Amsterdam. She travelled far and wide: to Vienna and Paris, and to Naples and Copenhagen. For the next 17 years she travelled around Europe in a custom-made cart, accompanied by her entourage. Her owner, Douwe Mout van der Meer, was soon showing her to anyone who would pay for the pleasure, whether at fairs, markets, carnivals, or royal courts. After her long voyage from India, in 1741 she arrived in Amsterdam. Clara the Rhinoceros runs from 30 September 2022 to 15 January 2023 in the Phillips Wing of the Rijksmuseum.Ĭlara may not have been the first rhinoceros to come to Europe, but she did become the most famous one. They range from the first-ever European print depicting a rhinoceros-made in 1515 by Albrecht Dürer-to a life-size, full-length portrait of Clara by Jean-Baptiste Oudry dating from 1749. Very few of these artworks have been displayed before in the Netherlands, and never before have so many exceptional objects devoted to Clara the rhinoceros being presented together. The 60 objects on display include paintings, drawings, medals, statues, books, clocks, and a goblet. The exhibition shows how new knowledge changed perceptions of the rhinoceros, and how art played its part in this process. Viger, Clock with Rhinoceros as Carrier, 1755 (Parnassia Collection). Sadly, the ship carrying the new gift sank before it reached Rome.Saint-Germain, J.J., and F. Dom Manuel sent the rhinoceros to Pope Leo X in Rome, who had much admired 'Hanno', the elephant the king had sent him the year before. So convincing was Dnrer's fanciful creation that for the next 300 years European illustrators borrowed from his woodcut, even after they had seen living rhinoceroses without plates and scales. Perhaps these features interpret lost sketches, or even the text, which states, ' has the colour of a speckled tortoise and it is covered with thick scales'. 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 Durer had to work solely from these reports. A description of the rhinoceros soon reached Nuremberg, presumably with sketches, from which Dnrer prepared this drawing and woodcut. On its 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 rhinceros 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. This celebrated woodcut records the arrival in Lisbon of an Indian rhinoceros on. First edition of a broadside on a rhinoceros.
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