Artwork Listing

Rhino Tejo

Rhino Tejo

Rhino Tejo

42
Rhino Tejo
Brig, Switzerland
2020.06

In 1515, an Indian rhinoceros arrived in Lisbon from the Far East. In the context of the Renaissance, it was a piece of classical antiquity which had been rediscovered as a mythical beast. A couple month later King Manuel I of Portugal decided to give the rhinoceros as a gift to the Medici Pope Leo X. When the ship was wrecked in a sudden storm the rhinoceros, chained and shackled to the deck to keep it under control, was unable to swim to safety and drowned.Allegedly the mounted skin was sent to Rome in a second attempt, arriving in February 1516, to be exhibited impagliato (Italian for “stuffed with straw”).

37x32
Taxidermy on American moulding forms for braces
Brig CH 20
Depot Suisse