Cultural depictions
Main article: Cultural depictions of elephants
See also: Elephants in Kerala culture, List of elephants in mythology and religion and List of fictional pachyderms
Stone carving Elephant. 7 CE AD. Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu. (UNESCO World Heritage Sites)
Woodcut illustration for "The Elephant's Child" by Rudyard Kipling
Elephants have been represented in art since Paleolithic times. Africa in particular contains many rock paintings and engravings of the animals, especially in the Sahara and southern Africa.[173] In the Far East, the animals are depicted as motifs in Hindu and Buddhist shrines and temples.[174] Elephants were often difficult to portray by people with no first-hand experience with them.[175] The ancient Romans, who kept the animals in captivity, depicted anatomically accurate elephants on mosaics in Tunisia and Sicily. At the beginning of Middle Ages, when Europeans had little to no access to the animals, elephants were portrayed more like fantasy creatures. They were often depicted with horse- or bovine-like bodies with trumpet-like trunks and tusks like a boar; some were even given hooves. Elephants were commonly featured in motifs by the stonemasons of the Gothic churches. As more elephants began to be sent to European kings as gifts during the 15th century, depictions of them became more accurate, including one made by Leonardo da Vinci. Despite this, some Europeans continued to portray them in a more stylised fashion.[176] Max Ernst's 1921 surrealist painting The Elephant Celebes depicts an elephant as a silo with a trunk-like hose protruding from it.[177]