His original drawing for the woodcut was in the collection of Sir Hans Sloane and is now in the British Museum (see Sl,5218.161). It is very likely that he based his design on a description in a Portugese newsletter that was sent to Nuremberg accompanied by some sort of sketch. The appearance of a creature as exotic as this was the subject of massive interest, and Dürer's print turned out to be one of the most influential images in the history of western art but Dürer never saw the animal himself. It had been presented by the ruler of Gujarat, Sultan Muzafar II, to the governor of Portugese India, Alfonso d'Albuquerque, who sent it on to King Manuel I in Lisbon, where it arrived on 20 May, 1515. Curator's comments Dürer’s famous woodcut records the arrival of the first rhinoceros to reach Europe alive since the third century AD.
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