The Elephant
Martin Schongauer (German, c. 1430/50-1491)
c. 1485
- Medium
- Engraving on ivory laid paper
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Image: 10.2 × 12.8 cm (4 1/16 × 5 1/16 in.); Sheet: 10.2 × 13 cm (4 1/16 × 5 1/8 in.)
- Culture
- Germany
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Martin Schongauer may have engraved his fantastical Griffin and his Elephant as a pair, given their similar scale. Although he may have had the opportunity to see a real elephant in 1483, this depiction is clearly inaccurate by modern standards. Nonetheless, by the mid-16th century, his print became the basis for scientific illustration in Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner’s 1551 book on animals. The two prints may also relate to Schongauer’s series of coats of arms with fanciful animals decorating their shields.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
