16th Century Lisbon was possibly the most globally connected city of its time. This is the story of what was to become one of its most famous visitors, a rhinoceros who captured the imagination of renaissance Europe, going on to become one of the icons of the Age of Discovery.
Based on written descriptions sent back to Nuremberg and other parts of Europe by merchants in Lisbon, Albrecht Dürer created his own depiction of the rhino. Although inaccurate, Dürer’s striking depiction piece of art and became the standard throughout Europe of what rhinos looked like, inspiring dozens of other paintings and artists.
Remembering Ancient Roman stories about the deadly rivalry between elephants and rhinoceroses, King D. Manuel I decided to see if this was true.
He organised a bout between the two animals to which he also invited the Queen and her ladies-in-waiting, as well as other important guests. When the two beasts were placed opposite each other the elephant panicked and ran away the moment the rhinoceros began to approach it.
In 1515 Manuel decided to send a new extraordinary envoy to Rome in order to secure the support of the Pope Leo X in the wake of the ever-growing success of the Portuguese ventures in the Orient and with a view to consolidating his kingdom's international prestige.
The rhinoceros, sporting a green velvet collar decorated with golden roses and carnations, was one of the gifts. The ship left Lisbon in December 1515 but sailed into a violent storm off the coast of Genoa and sunk, killing the whole crew. Although rhinos can swim, because it was tied up the animal also died.
However, the rhino's body was recovered and when he heard of the disaster, Manuel ordered the rhino to be stuffed and sent to the Pope, as if nothing had happened. But it did not go down so well with the Pope as his previous gift, Hanno the elephant!
In Portugal the rhinoceros was immortalised and a representation of it decorates one of the bartizans in the Tower of Belém.
It can also be can be found in Alcobaça Monastery, where there is a naturalistic full-body representation of the animal in the form of a gargoyle in the Cloister of Silence.
Coordination:
Isabel Cruz de Almeida
(Director, Tower of Belém)
Text:
Belém Tower
Digital Production:
Luis Ramos Pinto
(Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage, Portugal)
