This 1687 rendition of the rhinoceros represents an early departure from Dürer’s model with hooved feet like a pig, large body plates and no hornlein the the sholders. It is by Johann Christoph Wagner, 1687: Interiora Orientis detecta, oder … , Augsburg: J. Koppmayer. It has it’s origins in an image by Michael Herr (1490/5 – 1550) in his “Accurate description of all four legged animals”, 1546, Strasburg and also found in André Thevet’s 1558 Combat with an elephant in “les Singularitez de la France Antarctique”. Possibly this version is inspired by Aristotle when he states that ‘some call the Ethiopian ox as having the head of a pig, tail like a cow and skin armoured naturally like that of a crocodile. Its proportions are roughly the same as that of an elephant and he has a horn on its nose and a second one between its sholders, which is equally large and sharp’.
