David Kandel

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The “Rhinoceros” woodcut (34 x 20,5 cms or 11.8x8,0 inch) by David Kandel, published in Sebastian Münster's “Cosmographia” of 1598. The obvious resemblance with Dürer's Rhinoceros is quite clear.(From Dr. Nuno Carvalho de Sousa Private Collections - Lisbon)
The “Rhinoceros” woodcut (34 x 20,5 cms or 11.8x8,0 inch) by David Kandel, published in Sebastian Münster's “Cosmographia” of 1598. The obvious resemblance with Dürer's Rhinoceros is quite clear.(From Dr. Nuno Carvalho de Sousa Private Collections - Lisbon)

David Kandel (1520 - 1592) was a typical Renaissance artist. And, like we all know, one of the best qualities of the Renaissance Period was its everlasting concerning with the elements of the natural world. The works and masterpieces of Renaissance artists, like the work of the Renaissance Scientists, did forever altered and enlighten our perception of the world we live in. David Kandel was one of the best known pioneers of botanical art and science. However, like in similar cases of many other Renaissance artists, very few facts are verifiable regarding his personal life, because very few events in his life are identifiable from surviving records. We can only say about David Kandel that he was probably born is Strasbourg, on the year of 1520, since he was indeed the son of a citizen from that same town. He married in 1554 and 33 years later, in 1587, he was named "owner of a house". David Kandel died on 1592. The best works and woodcuts which are varied, from scientifical botanical ilustrations to beautiful illustrations from chapters or scenes from the Holy Bible. The “Kreuterbuch” (or “The Book of the Herbs”), by Hieronymus Bock, is a superb achievement full of beautiful woodcuts that were seen as the best of botanical art for the next two centuries. David Kandel contributed with 550 woodcuts to this famous masterpiece. These original woodcuts examined in great detail an enormous number of plants, herbs and trees by combining drawing, contemporary researches and medieval and ancient theories. The woodcut “Rhinoceros”, for the work “Cosmographia” (or “Cosmography”) by Sebastian Munster is, along with his maps, also very famous and depicts a rhinoceros truly based on the Dürer sketch."