A Rhino Remembered
A Rhino Remembered

On the 500th Anniversary of a Shipwreck

Summary/Abstract: In vain would we prefer to behold beauty in our rhinoceros, or at least to appreciate its positive aspects, for the innocent beast somehow invariably ended up on the dark side as a symbol of terror. As early as in 1593, Cesare Ripa in his Iconology recommended a blind woman with the head of a rhinoceros as the most fitting allegory to represent fury. The French revolutionaries saw it as the emblem of absolutism; the rhinoceros Louis XVI kept at his palace in Versailles met the fate of his master shortly after he was executed.

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