Conrad Gesner published his History of the animals in the same year when Salamon, the elephant left Lisbon for Vienna.This morning, just as if it were attracted by the previous elephant, a new elephant arrived with the post. And what is even more splendid, this elephant is a contemporary and colleague of the rhinoceros of Dürer – as if he warned me with a gentle push that it is time to write the next chapter of the Rhinocerology, dedicated to the rhinoceros and the elephant.
El viaje del elefante del Nobel winner José Saramago was published only two months ago in Buenos Aires. It reconstructs with much humor and historical detail the adventurous voyage of that elephant called Salamon which was sent in 1551 by King John III of Portugal from Lisbon to Archduke Maximilian II to Vienna. Along the way, in Salzburg there is still standing the inn To the Elephant which gave the inspiration of the novel to Saramago.
It is interesting to see how much these Renaissance pachyderms roaming about Europe have come into fashion during the last years, like The Pope’s rhinoceros by Lawrence Norfolk or The Pope’s elephant by Silvio Bedini. I will report on the book as soon as I finish it. In the meantime, in order it should not feel alone, I include here another elephant that I received in comment to the previous post as an additional illustration of the friendship between elephant and man.
Come with us to…
Atlantis
Bestiary
Bohemia+Prague
Books, exhibitions, music, film
Brave old world
Caucasus
Cemeteries
Crimea
Get to know the
Images of the East
Lightwriting
Lwów/Lemberg
Mallorca
Message on the wall
The Museum of Propaganda
Odessa
Paper Museum
Persian letters
The Jewish heritage
2 comentarios:
¡Es tan curioso cómo en el grabado del siglo XVI reproducen los pliegues de la trompa y las orejas del elefante como si fueran partes de una armadura (planchas rígidas superpuestas enganchadas unas con otras para dar movilidad)!
Con el rinoceronte sucedía algo semejante, pero todavía hoy seguimos viendo esos animales como provistos de una coraza, a diferencia del elefante, de tantas arrugas.
Sí. Obviamente para una plausible representación del animal que presentaba sus “piezas” insólitas en los animales de Europa como miembros orgánicos, necesitaba no sólo reproducir su aspecto, mas también saber cómo funcionan estas piezas. Algo de semejante pasó con el rinoceronte como lo veremos en un próximo capítulo de la Rinocerontología.
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