Elephants Carrying the Polo Brothers and Khubilai Khan
Livre des merveilles, Biblioteque nationale de France, Paris

Marco Polo's Accounts of Khubilai Khan

This is a Western artist's depiction of Khubilai Khan on a hunt accompanied by the Polo brothers, based on the accounts of Marco Polo.

In his book Il Milione, Marco Polo writes that Khubilai Khan had become so obese that no single horse could sustain his weight, and that elephants had to be used to transport him.

This artist had apparently never seen someone from Asia — he depicts Khubilai here with Western features. Judging from this depiction, he'd also never seen an elephant — he depicts the horses as being larger than the elephants

— compare to a Chinese artist's depiction of Khubilai Khan on a hunt —