Rhinoceros horn cup, Prague 1611

Rhinoceros-horn cup, 1611.

Rhinoceros horn is another natural substance traditionally credited with medicinal powers. Although today it is regarded as an aphrodisiac and remedy for impotence in folk medicine, in the court of Rudolf II it was rather supposed to repel calumny, evil, and the forces of the underworld. Hence the 'dichotomy of menace and mollification' which recurs across this remarkable object.* Warthog tusks (believed to be the horns of a mythical dragon called a 'wyvern') are refashioned to provide the horns of a two-headed beast, with fangs bared in the front (as shown) but subdued and restrained at the back. In his mouth was a fossilised shark's tooth, regarded as offering protection against poison. The lid below crawls with beetles, lizards, frogs and other subterranean creatures, probably cast from life in Nuremberg.  Likewise, the rhinoceros horn itself has been carved to depict newts, insects, animal heads, and branches of coral; but above them emerge gentle human faces 'as symbols of the healing power of nature and the cosmos'.*

Literature. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Prag um 1600: Kunst und Kultur am Hofe Rudolfs II, 2 vols (Freren, 1988), vol. 1, nos. 341; E. Scheicher, 'Zur Ikonologie Naturalien im Zusammenhang der enzyklopädischen Kunstkammer', Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums (1995), pp. 115-25; * Sabine Haag and Franz Kirchweger, eds., Treasures of the Habsburgs(London, 2013), pp. 202-3.

Commentary. Howard Hotson (May 2018)