Artists pull inspiration from things they're familiar with, both then and today. Travel in Medieval times was challenging, causing people to generally stay where they were, limiting their view of the world.
I'm sure these artists had only heard descriptions of elephants from the few that had travelled and actually seen an elephant. They then referenced things they knew are were familiar with in northern Europe: wild boar, trumpets, etc.
> Artists pull inspiration from things they're familiar with, both then and today.
I think that you can broaden this to humanity as a whole. And this is why i find that old Ford quote about faster horses so aggravating.
It is used to claim that the masses are dumb or unimaginative.
But thats not the case.
People would ask for a "faster horse" because that is the means of travel they were used to.
That is not to say everyone (though perhaps some) would mean an actual horse, but that they can't begin to describe something they are not familiar with because they are not familiar with it.
Even the ancient philosophers had to use allegories etc to get an idea across.
You can see this throughout art history. Renaissance depictions of Jerusalem are very "European". For instance, The Sermon of St. Stephen At Jerusalem: http://www.louvre.fr/sites/default/files/imagecache/940x768/...
I'm sure these artists had only heard descriptions of elephants from the few that had travelled and actually seen an elephant. They then referenced things they knew are were familiar with in northern Europe: wild boar, trumpets, etc.