David Kandel

"The “Rhinoceros" woodcut (34 × 20.5 cm or 11.8×8.0 inches) 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 Renaissance artist. One of the best qualities of the Renaissance Period was its everlasting concern with the elements of the natural world. David Kandel was one of the best known pioneers of botanical art and science. However, very few facts are verifiable regarding his personal life, because very few events in his life are identifiable from surviving records. David Kandel was probably born in Strasbourg, in 1520. He married in 1554 and 33 years later, in 1587, he was named "owner of a house". David Kandel died in 1592. His works and woodcuts are varied, from scientific botanical illustrations to 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 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.