“Clara, the rhino” is the nostalgic star of a lost world

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“In nomen omen” claimed the Latins with a very famous phrase. And the dictionary matches the translation of “famous” to the adjective “clarus”. Well, the name, “Clara”, was never more appropriate for the heavy protagonist of the exhibition “Clara the rhino”, at the Rijksmuseum until January 15, 2023, dedicated to the most famous rhino in history.

Bizarre destiny that of the “Rhinocerotidae” which in the eighteenth century became a real star of the time, with performances that from her native India engaged her in long tours from one side of Europe to the other, from Vienna to Paris, from Naples to Rome, from Venice, to Copenhagen. She will then die in London in 1758. Clara was in fact mysterious and unknown, large and impressive, but above all different from all the animals known at the time.

It helped change our relationship with animals

The story of “Signorina Clara”, as it was graciously announced, is a clear (sic!) Example of how the combination of scientific knowledge and artist’s visions have contributed to changing the conception and perception of our relationship with animals. Because Clara of her from her time was the undisputed protagonist among fairs such as the European courts, engaging painters, sculptors, watchmakers, potters and jewelers in portraying her on several occasions. As for the painters, Jean-Baptiste Oudry portrayed her in 1749 (Staatliches Museum Schwerin. Pietro Longhi himself painstakingly portrays her as she is shown to the masked public during the Venetian Carnival of 1751, and her famous portrait (Pietro Falca, called Pietro Longhi, The rhino, Ca ‘Rezzonico) is present in the exhibition from the Venetian collections, as well as the large marble sculpture by the Ghent artist Pieter Anton Verschaffelt, from the Rothschild Collection of Waddesdon Manor, and a very rare clock from a Dutch private collection, by the bronzist and Parisian watchmaker Jean-Josephde Saint-Germain, where Clara is the backbone. Because Clara was a real status symbol, proof of this is the beautiful portrait of Princess Marfia Luisa of Parma in front of the clock displayed on the majestic fireplace and which has the rhino as its base, (Portrait of Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Parma, Laurent Pêcheux, 1765, Palazzo Pitti).

Albrecht Dürer

On display are sixty paintings, drawings, medals, sculptures, books, watches and even a mug and most of them can be admired for the first time. Among the many works, the first European print of a rhinoceros made by Albrecht Dürer in 1515.

As for the history of the large mammal, it was not the first rhino to appear in Europe, but certainly the most famous. In 1741 he lands in Nieuwendam near Amsterdam after a long journey from India. Its owner, Douwe Mout van der Meer, shows it to anyone willing to pay to admire it: from royal courts to fairs and markets, even as a special special attraction during the carnival. across Europe in a chariot built especially for her, touching almost every major city of the time. During her travel breaks in Dutch territory she is placed in the land called “t Meertje” in the north of Amsterdam, until her death in 1758.