After a trip to Venice last year I became intrigued by the
historic stories of animals who also visited, such as Clara the rhinoceros as
painted by Pietro Longhi. One such was an elephant that had belonged to
Frederick I of Württemberg. Claudio Garnier acquired the animal when the king
died and had the idea to take this particularly good natured beast to Venice
for Carnivale. The elephant had been much admired and toured around the city so
Claudio then decided to buy a boat to take her onto Lombardy for their
carnival. But this gentle creature felt very insecure and unbalanced once she
placed her large foot on board even though she had been coaxed with loaves of
bread. She managed to outwit those who were trying to contain her and at one
point ended up in a church wreaking havoc wherever she went. So I decided I
would like to try and bring her back to life. Her skeleton can be seen in the
museum of Padua and the rest of her remains are buried on the artists’ island
of Giudecca.