Dürer Never Saw A Rhinoceros, But His Woodcut Of One Was A Megahit (And Wasn’t Too Far Off)

“Five hundred years ago in 1516, the first rhinoceros seen in Europe since the days of the Roman Empire drowned off the coast of Italy in a shipwreck. … This was the rhinoceros portrayed by Albrecht Dürer in his famous woodblock print of 1515. … [He] was like most people in Europe: he never actually saw the rhinoceros. He relied on a written description and sketch sent from Lisbon.”