A £50,000 tribute to a Renaissance wonder
THE existence of the elephant – “nature’s great masterpiece... the only harmless great thing”, to use John Donne’s famous description – was well known to medieval Europeans, but captive pachyderms had disappeared from the continent shortly after the demise of the Roman Empire.
Their reappearance in the royal menageries of the 16th century, the gifts of Asian potentates, cause…