The Indian Rhinoceros
The Portuguese had brought two animals back to Europe from India which were to become famous in the history of art: an elephant and the first Indian rhinoceros to be seen in Europe. After staging a fight between the beasts, which the rhinoceros won when the elephant ran away from it, King Manuel I of Portugal gave both animals to Pope Leo X as a present, but only the elephant, which was later painted by Raphael, survived the second sea voyage; the ship carrying the rhinoceros sank in a storm in the Mediterranean. But a faithful likeness had earlier been taken of the animal which Dürer obtained.
 
Woodcut by Albrecht Dürer , Germany, 1515.
Limited edition screen print from a hand-cut stencil © 1996 by Allen Bjorkman.