The Monstrous Sow of Landser

News of the birth of a two-bodied pig—with four ears, two tongues, and eight feet—during Easter of 1496 spread quickly thanks to a broadsheet announcing the event. Widely regarded as a portent of the end of the world feared to occur in 1500, this genetic anomaly was of great interest far and wide, and the fervor over recording its appearance was likely behind Dürer’s genesis of this image. It is clear that Dürer did not base his depiction on observation since he situated the pig—which seems oddly full-grown for a newborn animal—against a landscape that looks quite similar to one that appeared in the broadsheet, albeit in reverse.