The Elephant (c. 1485): Artwork and History

The Elephant (c. 1485) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Martin Schongauer German, c. 1430/50-1491.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the 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.

Object facts

• Title: The Elephant
• Date: c. 1485
• Artist attribution: Martin Schongauer German, c. 1430/50-1491
• Place of origin: Germany
• Medium: Engraving on ivory laid paper
• 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.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.912

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.