The Other Rhinoceroses That Dürer Did Not Know

Abstract Using a morphometric approach, we have compared fifteen sixteenth-century representations of rhinoceroses from Italy, Portugal, and Germany, including Dürer’s drawing and woodcut. In the comparisons, we also included ten samples of the real Indian species, Rhinoceros unicornis . Comparisons revealed at least three types of sixteenth-century representations. One corresponds to that of Dürer, another to Penni-Granacci, and the third to Antonio de Holanda. A drawing found in the Vaticani latini section of the Vatican Apostolic Library appears to be the one made in Lisbon that was used by Penni and Granacci as a model. Comparisons with the real Rhinoceros unicornis indicated that the well-known Burgkmair rhinoceros is not as realistic as is generally believed. In contrast, Dürer’s rhinoceros is not as fanciful as most authors claim. This softens criticism of the implausibility of Dürer’s image reproduced in Renaissance natural science treatises, when it was considered as a faithful portrait of the animal.