8 4 



Chinese Clay Figures 



student of the anatomy of the rhinoceros, it is impossible to assume that 

 he had ever seen the animal. This fact is quite certain, for it is known 

 that the King of Portugal despatched the animal to the Pope, and that it 

 was drowned off Genova when the vessel on board which it was being 

 carried was foundered. The only supposition that remains, therefore, is 

 that some one of Lisbon near King Emanuel must have sent on to Diirer 

 a rough outline-sketch of the novel and curious creature, which was im- 

 proved and somewhat adorned by the great artist. But to what sources 

 did he turn for information on the subject? Naturally to that fountain- 

 head from which all knowledge was drawn during that period, the au- 

 thors of classical antiquity. 

 The fact that Diirer really 

 followed this procedure is 

 evidenced by the very de- 

 scription of the animal, 

 which he added to his 

 sketch, and in which he 

 reiterates the story of the 

 ancients regarding the eter- 

 nal enmity and struggle of 

 rhinoceros and elephant. x 

 The most curious feature 

 about Diirer's rhinoceros is 



Marble Relief of Two-Horned Rhinoceros in Pompeii . 



(from O. Keller, Antike Tierwelt). that, besides the hom On 



1748 it reached Augsburg where Johann Ridinger made a drawing and etching of it 

 with the title as stated (L. Reinhardt, Kulturgeschichte der Nutztiere, p. 751, 

 Miinchen, 1912). The rhinoceros is a subject which for obvious reasons has seldom 

 tempted an artist. It should be emphasized that no artist has ever made even a 

 tolerably good sketch of it, and that only photography has done it full justice. 



1 According to the tales of the ancients, the feuds between the two animals were 

 fought for the sake of watering-places and pastures; and the rhinoceros prepared it- 

 self for the combat by sharpening its horn on the rocks in order to better rip the arch- 

 enemy's paunch which it knows to be its softest part (compare Diodor, 1, 36; Aelian, 

 Nat. animalium, xvn, 44; Pausanias, ix, 21; and Pliny, Nat. hist., vin, 20: alter 

 hie genitus hostis elephanto cornu ad saxa limato praeparat se pugnae, in dimicatione 

 alvum maxime petens, quam scit esse molliorem). The same story is still repeated by 

 Johan Neuhof (Die Gesantschaft der Ost-Indischen Gesellschaft [1655-57], P- 349. 

 Amsterdam, 1669) in his description of the Chinese rhinoceros, which is based on 

 classical, not Chinese reports: "It makes permanent war on the elephant, and when 

 read}' to fight, it whets its horn on stones. In the struggle with the elephant it always 

 hits toward its paunch where it is softest, and when it has opened' a hole there, it 

 desists, and allows it to bleed to death. It grunts like a hog; its flesh eaten by the 

 Moors is so tough that only teeth of steel could bite it." The Brahmans allowed the 

 flesh of the rhinoceros to be eaten as a medicine (M. Chakravarti, Animals in the 

 Inscriptions of Piyadasi, Memoirs As. Soc. of Bengal, Vol. I, p. 371, Calcutta, 1906); 

 according to al-Berunl (Sachau, Alberuni's India, Vol. I, p. 204), they had the 

 privilege of eating its flesh. Ctesias stated wrongly that the flesh is so bitter that it 

 is not eaten. 



