David Kandel (1520/25–1592/96)
“Rhinoceros”, c1550, after Albrecht
Dürer (1471–1528) (Meder 273), printed by Heinrich Petri (fl.c.1527–1577),
published as the illustration to page 1086, in the first/Latin edition (1550–52)
before the German editions of Sebastian Münster’s (1488–1552), “Cosmographia”,
in Basle.
Note that the Latin edition is
differentiated from the German edition by the woodcut of “an elephant carrying
various figures on a large saddle to right, by an anonymous printmaker” (see BM
no. 1850,1014.988). I have previously posted another impression of Kandel’s “Rhinoceros”
(now sold) from the German edition which features a landscape with a walled
city (verso)—my apologies for not investigating which city is portrayed (see https://www.printsandprinciples.com/2018/10/david-kandels-woodcut-rhinoceros-1550.html).
Woodcut with old colouring and
letterpress text printed recto and verso and a second woodcut printed verso on
fine laid paper backed with support sheet (with a window cut to show the verso
woodcut).
Size: (sheet) 13.8 x 19 cm; (woodcut verso partial obscured by support sheet) 6.5 x 10
cm.
Signed with Kandel's monogram of entwined letters (*DK") at lower
centre.
Lifetime impression taken from the first Latin edition of "Cosmographia" (1550/2).
Hollstein 10p; Nagler 1858-79 II.1173.5;
Bartsch IX.394.17; Meder 273; Schoch/Mende/Scherbaum 241
The British Museum offers a description
of this print from the same Latin edition:
Condition: well-printed lifetime impression with old
colouring in excellent condition for its considerable age (i.e. there are no
tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing). The sheet is laid onto a
support of conservator’s fine archival/millennium quality washi paper cut with
a rectangular “window” to enable the woodcut printed verso to be seen.
I am selling this extremely rare woodcut
for AU$350 (currently US$246.84/EUR221.10/GBP190.71 at the time of this
listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not,
of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).
If you are interested in purchasing this
superb woodcut with antique colouring after Dürer’s famous “Rhinoceros”, please
contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal
invoice to make the payment easy.
This print has been sold
This woodcut by Kandel (1550) after
Dürer’s famous “Rhinoceros” (1514) was a plate in a series of 22 illustrations
for the enlarged edition of “Cosmographia”—the first publication offering
descriptions of the world and, interestingly, the first to feature a map of the
Americas—initially published in Basle in 1550 (from which this impression is
extracted) and republished another 15 times with German text with the last
printing in 1628. The Curator of the British Museum advises that this enlarged
edition “contained around 900 illustrations and 40 maps” (see BM no.
1850,1014.972).
For those who may not be familiar with
Dürer’s depiction of a rhinoceros—an Indian rhinoceros I understand—the design
of the woodcut is based on a sketch made by an unidentified artist when the
portrayed rhino was in Lisbon. Essentially, Dürer never had the chance to see
this particular animal as the rhino drowned when the ship that was transporting
it from Lisbon to Rome became shipwrecked. What Kandel/Dürer have depicted in
their illustration of a rhino is consequently a concoction of rhino details and
understandably, some are not quite right, such as an “extra” horn on the neck
of the animal and the marvellous patterning of spots on its hide.
