Dürer’s animal, unforgettable in its pent-up monumentality and haunting in the rigid plates of its folding skin, is a magnificent achievement by a supreme artist. It is striking, evocative and so real you almost fear it is about to escape from the page. And it is, of course – exhilaratingly? distressingly? reassuringly? (I don’t know which) – wrong. But in the end that is not the point. Durer’s Rhinoceros stands as a monument to our endless curiosity about the world beyond our grasp, and to humanity’s need to explore and try to understand it.
