Indian Rhinoceros, H 28 cm

Emperor Titus brought the first rhinoceros to Europe in the year 80 AD, causing a sensation at the Roman Coliseum. It took until 1515 for another one to reach our continent – Lisbon, to be precise – as an unusual import from the recently established sea route to India. A local artist then created a woodcut of the fabulous creature, which served Albrecht Dürer as a model for his own famous woodcut: with “Dürer’s little horn” on the animal’s back. His magnificent fine print was frequently copied, and one of those copies was the 1583 copper engraving by Abraham de Bryn, which in turn inspired the large Meissen Rhinoceros, created by Johann Gottlieb Kirchners in 1732. The model has been in Meissen’s archive ever since. Only after the arrival of the third rhinoceros in Europe in 1714 did the fantastical animal slowly become a real one. Our master modellers and repairers have revived the “small” Rhinoceros for a great comeback: this time to celebrate the tercentenary of the Meissen Manufactory.