Raphael painted a memorial fresco for an elephant.

1514 · 1516 · apart: 2 years

Hanno, Pope Leo X’s white pet, lived in Rome for two years; when he died in 1516, the pope buried him in the Vatican and wrote his epitaph himself.

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• Hanno, the pope's elephant1514 · Rome. In 1514 King Manuel I of Portugal gave Pope Leo X a white Indian elephant. Hanno danced for crowds, sprayed onlookers with water and joined processions; when he died two years later, the pope wrote his epitaph and Raphael reportedly designed a memorial fresco.

16th century

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