Asian elephant
Date
1766
Creator
Louis Boily (1735, French) , Printmaker
After
D Girille, Artist
Object type
Library reference
RCN63249
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 232mm
width (print): 315mm
width (print): 315mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Study of an Indian elephant, Elephas maximus indicus owned by Charles of Bourbon (1716-1788) later King Charles III of Spain. The mammal was the gift of Ottoman Sultan Mahmud I as a mark of good relations between the courts of Naples and Constantinople and was kept in the menagerie at the Portici palace (Palazzo Reale di Portici) in southern Italy from 1742 until the animal’s death in 1756. The elephant was preserved and is part of the collections of the University of Naples Zoological Museum.
Mount Vesuvius is shown as a background detail. Portici Palace gardens are on the slope of the volcano.
Plate 1 from the book Opuscula di fisico argomento…1 Descrizione dell’ Elefante… by Francesco Serao (Giuseppe de Bonis, Naples, 1766).
The illustration is inscribed lower right: ‘D Girelle del. L Boily S.’ With a scale below, ‘Scala di dodica Palmi Napolotani’.
Francesco Serao (1702-1783), Italian physician and anatomist.
Mount Vesuvius is shown as a background detail. Portici Palace gardens are on the slope of the volcano.
Plate 1 from the book Opuscula di fisico argomento…1 Descrizione dell’ Elefante… by Francesco Serao (Giuseppe de Bonis, Naples, 1766).
The illustration is inscribed lower right: ‘D Girelle del. L Boily S.’ With a scale below, ‘Scala di dodica Palmi Napolotani’.
Francesco Serao (1702-1783), Italian physician and anatomist.
Associated place