Abstract

In 1741, a Dutch sea captain succeeded in transporting a live female Indian rhino calf from north-east India to his home town of Leiden. Named “Clara,” she was only the fifth Indian rhinoceros to be seen on European soil since the fall of the Roman empire and the only rhinoceros on the continent in the mid-eighteenth century. From 1741 to 1758, Douwemout Van der Meer displayed Clara across Europe to commoners and kings. In 1751, Van der Meer took Clara to Venice, to show her during Carnival. But en route to Venice, Clara shed her horn. Clara and the crowds that queued to see her—even in her hornless state—are recorded in the paintings and etchings of the father and son, Pietro and Alessandro Longhi. The article provides a brief introduction to Clara’s history and mid-eighteenth-century European odyssey, before examining her 1751 visit to Venice. At that time, the fragility of Clara’s status as the only one of her kind in Europe was further heightened by her shed horn, while rumors that she had been lost to the Grand Canal may be seen as an astute marketing ploy on the part of Van der Meer, and strangely prescient of the potential disappearance of both the rhinoceros and Venice itself.

摘要

1741 年，一位荷兰船长成功地将一头活的雌性印度犀牛犊从印度东北部运送到他的家乡莱顿。她被命名为“克拉拉”，是自罗马帝国灭亡以来在欧洲土地上发现的第五只印度犀牛，也是 18 世纪中叶欧洲大陆上唯一的犀牛。从 1741 年到 1758 年，Douwemout Van der Meer 在欧洲各地向平民和国王展示克拉拉。1751 年，范德米尔带着克拉拉到威尼斯，在狂欢节期间向她展示。但在前往威尼斯的途中，克拉拉放弃了她的号角。克拉拉和排队看她的人群——即使在她没有角的状态下——都记录在父子 Pietro 和 Alessandro Longhi 的画作和版画中。本文简要介绍了克拉拉的历史和 18 世纪中叶的欧洲奥德赛，然后回顾了她 1751 年对威尼斯的访问。