Clara in Qatar: A New Life for a Meissen Porcelain Rhinoceros
The Orientalist Museum in Qatar has a small, but important, Meissen porcelain statue of a rhinoceros. This rhino is none other than Clara, the same rhinoceros which toured Venice in 1751, and enjoyed a career spanning some twenty years touring Europe. She became so famous that she was commemorated in art of a variety of media and is represented in the two famous paintings by Pietro Longhi and Jean-Baptiste Oudry, in bronze sculpture, and even appeared as part of the background of an engraving in an eighteenth-century anatomy book. This article will introduce Qatar’s Meissen rhinoceros, its provenance and highlight the ongoing travels of Miss Clara.
Other Information
Published in: Luxury
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
See article on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20511817.2020.1864598
Funding
Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library.
History
Language
- English
Publisher
RoutledgePublication Year
- 2021
License statement
This Item is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Institution affiliated with
- Orientalist Museum
- Qatar Museums