{
"data": {
"id": 109031,
"accession_number": "1927.199",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "An Elephant with Howdah, c. 1485. Martin Schongauer (German, c. 1450\u20131491). Engraving; sheet: 10.8 x 14.6 cm (4 1/4 x 5 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1927.199",
"current_location": null,
"title": "An Elephant with Howdah",
"creation_date": "c. 1485",
"creation_date_earliest": 1480,
"creation_date_latest": 1490,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Germany"
],
"technique": "engraving",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Prints",
"collection": "PR - Engraving",
"type": "Print",
"measurements": "Sheet: 10.8 x 14.6 cm (4 1/4 x 5 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.108,
"width": 0.146
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 357426,
"title": "Italian and German Prints of the 15th Century",
"description": "Italian and German Prints of the 15th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 29, 1933-January 3, 1934).",
"opening_date": "1933-11-29T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 356411,
"title": "15th Century German and Netherlands Prints from the Museum Collection",
"description": "15th Century German and Netherlands Prints from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 11-28, 1935).",
"opening_date": "1935-10-11T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 345396,
"title": "Inaugural Exhibition of the New Print Gallery - Prints from the Museum Collection",
"description": "Inaugural Exhibition of the New Print Gallery - Prints from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 10-November 13, 1938).",
"opening_date": "1938-08-10T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 345558,
"title": "15th Century German Engravings",
"description": "15th Century German Engravings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 15-December 11, 1938).",
"opening_date": "1938-11-15T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304516,
"title": "Eight Masters of the Print",
"description": "Eight Masters of the Print. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 14, 1980-January 18, 1981).",
"opening_date": "1980-10-14T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"1378.1927"
],
"did_you_know": "The howdah is a carriage placed on the back of an elephant and used to transport wealthy people during hunting and warfare.",
"description": "This print shows an elephant carrying a crenellated and fortified basket\u2014the howdah\u2014from which two very small human figures peer out. In 1483, an elephant was brought to Germany and taken from town to town to be exhibited as a curiosity. It is likely that Martin Schongauer and his brother Ludwig, who were living in Ulm at that time, witnessed the arrival of this exotic animal. While he may have seen the elephant in person, Schongauer's portrayal\u2014with its twisted trunk and shell-like ear\u2014was likely made from memory rather than direct study of the beast.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80001126"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1927.199-an-elephant-with-how"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "\"Some Recent Accession to the Department of Prints.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 15, no. 10 (December 1928): 194-196, 198-199, 201, 207",
"page_number": "Reproduced: inside cover; Mentioned: p. 194",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25137161"
}
],
"catalogue_raisonne": "Lehrs V.339.94",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1927.199",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1927.199/1927.199_web.jpg",
"width": "1231",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "905616",
"filename": "1927.199_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1927.199/1927.199_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2467",
"filesize": "6673778",
"filename": "1927.199_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1927.199/1927.199_full.tif",
"width": "5238",
"height": "3801",
"filesize": "59760752",
"filename": "1927.199_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Dudley P. Allen Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 109031,
"creators": [
{
"id": 12292,
"description": "Martin Schongauer (German, c. 1450\u20131491)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Martin Schongauer (ca. 1450-53, Colmar - 2 February 1491, Breisach) was one of the most skilled and influential graphic artists of Europe in the last quarter of the 15h century. Trained both as an engraver and as a painter, Schongauer started his apprenticeship under his father Caspar Schongauer, a goldsmith from Augsburg. In 1465, he matriculated at the University of Leipzig. After one year, he left his studies, and came back to Colmar. There, he was trained under the painter Caspar Isenmann, between 1466 and 1469. Schongauer later traveled down to the Rhine, Cologne, Burgundy, the Netherlands, and he likely visited Spain. In 1489, he became a citizen of Breisach, where he died probably of the plague in 1491. Only a few of Schongauer's paintings survive. Among these is the Madonna in the Rose Garden for the Church of Saint Martin in Colmar (1473), which betrays Schongauer's admiration for the works by the Netherlandish painter Roger Van der Weyden. The bulk of Schongauer's engravings is more conspicuous: 116 prints, none of them dated, but all marked by his monogram M+S. Characterized by exquisite cross-hatching and impeccable craftsmanship, Schongauer's engravings were widely imitated by the German printmakers Ishrael van Meckenem and Albrecht Durer, as well as by Italian artists, such as Cristoforo Robetta and Nicoletto da Modena.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1450",
"death_year": "1491",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1927-07-01T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1480,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1485",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:00:38.252000"
}
}