In the 16th century, did people think that rhinoceroses were covered in scales?
It all began on May 20, 1515 in Lisbon.
A ship arrives from India, loaded with spices. But what really causes a stir in the harbor is the landing of an extraordinary-looking animal for its time: an Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis). It was a gift sent by the Indian sultan to the Portuguese king Manuel I for his menagerie. The animal, named Ulysses, was the first living rhinoceros to arrive in Europe since antiquity. His arrival caused quite a stir. In the days following his landing, scholars and the curious flocked to see him. Several drawings, accompanied by more or less precise descriptions, spread rapidly across Europe.
Ulysses' stay in Portugal was short-lived: a few months later, Manuel I decided to offer him to Pope Leo X, hoping for a favor. But the ship never reached Rome: it ran into a heavy storm and sank off the Italian coast.
In Nuremberg, the 44-year-old painter and engraver Albrecht Dürer came across a document from Lisbon describing the animal. He was immediately interested in the clumsy sketch of the famous rhinoceros. The artist had long been fascinated by the secrets of nature. He too wanted to depict this astonishing animal. He began by making a pen-and-ink drawing based on the elements at his disposal, with a copy of the accompanying legend:
"In the year 1513 (sic) after the birth of Christ, this living animal was brought from India to Emmanuel, the great and powerful king of Portugal. They call it rhinoceros. It is shown here in its full form. It is the color of a spotted turtle, and is almost entirely covered with thick scales. He's about the size of an elephant, but lower-legged and almost invulnerable. It has a strong, pointed horn on its nose, which it sharpens whenever it's near a stone. The stupid animal is the elephant's mortal enemy. The latter fears him terribly, for when they clash, the rhinoceros runs headlong between its front legs, fatally disemboweling its adversary who is unable to defend himself. Faced with such a well-armed animal, the elephant can do nothing. They also say that the rhinoceros is fast, lively and intelligent."
Dürer then made a woodcut, enabling him to print a large number of copies (estimated at over 5,000), which were sold and sent all over Europe, and copied by numerous artists for decades. Thus, until the end of the 18th century, the animal was known only through the engraving of Dürer, who had never seen it with his own eyes. The drawing even appeared in Conrad Gessner's Historiae animalium, the first modern work of zoology, published in 1551.
Yet Dürer's drawing - inevitably - contains a series of errors. Rhinos of this species have only one horn on their nose. Dürer places a second, smaller horn on its back, resembling the horn of a unicorn. He draws a triangular plate under its chin and an elephant's tail. He covers his legs with scales like a reptile's skin and his back with armor...
This is how the rhinoceros was represented for three centuries: as a chimerical creature, one of those that populate fantasy bestiaries. It wasn't until 1741, when another rhinoceros arrived in Holland, that Europeans discovered that the image they'd had of the animal for three centuries was indeed erroneous: it had no unicorn horn, no elephant tail, no armour, etc... And he never wore scales: this is probably just a misinterpretation of the skin folds on the drawing that served as Dürer's model.
Albrecht Dürer, Rhinocerus (The Rhinoceros), Xylograph, 1515, Musée Wittert ULiège, inv. 170
