Exhibition of a Rhinoceros at Venice

probably 1751

Oil on canvas, 23 3/4 × 18 1/2 in. The National Gallery, London

A rhinoceros named Clara, watched by masked Venetians at the Carnival of 1751: modern life at cabinet size, the news of the day as a picture.

Look at

Two horizontal bands — the animal below, the spectators above a wooden rail — stacked like a stage and its gallery.
Browns and tans nearly throughout; the colour is saved for the spectators: white masks, a blue dress, a green shawl, pink and gold.
Each texture is told apart: the sheen of silk, the black lace, the rough dark hide.

Painted for Girolamo Mocenigo; Clara had been brought from India by a Dutch captain and had already lost her horn — the showman holds it up.
An earlier version is in Ca' Rezzonico; this one was bought by the National Gallery in 1881.

Image: The National Gallery, London · Public domain (faithful reproduction of a public-domain 2D work)