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At the end of the fifteenth century and for the first half of the sixteenth century, wealthy Portuguese patrons commissioned works of art, mainly in ivory, from craftsmen in Sierra Leone. The objects were destined for the kings and princes of Europe. The models for both form and decoration were supplied by the European visitors. An oliphant now in the collection of the Musée de l'Homme in Paris shows not only the usual arms of the Portuguese royal family and hunting scenes, but also an Indian elephant with its mahout carrying the typical hooked staff. This image could have been provided only by the patron. A series of contemporary historical and iconographical comparisons suggests that the model given to the African carver, even if in indirect form, relates to a drawing by Raphael or his school, which depicted the famous Indian elephant Hanno, a gift from the King of Portugal to Pope Leo X in 1514.
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