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Throughout his life, Dürer was interested in oddities of nature. The walrus has pushed the front half of his body into the picture and is looking at the observer with his peculiarly glassy gaze; this has led to the suggestion that Dürer created the study from a chopped off walrus head or stuffed animal, and completed the rest from his imagination. The study was to be used as a detail in the altar painting of an enthroned Madonna and Child surrounded by eight saints and angels playing instruments, but this work was never produced. At the top left Dürer wrote: "Das dozig thyr van dem ich do das hawbt conterfett hab, ist gefange worden in der niderlendischen see und was XII ellen brawendisch mit für füssen" (The animal which I have drawn this picture of was captured in the Dutch Sea and was twelve cubits in size with four feet).
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