Unicorn

Take a journey through art history with the unicorn, legend’s enduring creature. The unicorn has fascinated cultures for centuries, appearing across Western and non-European art, religion, myth, literature, natural science, and medicine. Far from a mere toy or pop culture icon, its symbolic meanings are deep and multi-layered. This lavish volume offers a comprehensive survey of the unicorn’s artistic journey from the second millennium BCE to today, tracing its appearances in manuscripts, altarpieces, sculpture, cabinets of curiosities, and tapestries, and situating the creature within cultural history. Essays by Adrien Bossard, Béatrice de Chancel-Bardelot, Barbara Drake Boehm, Séverine Lepape, Michael Philipp, Annabelle Ténèze, and Stefan Trinks illuminate the unicorn’s evolving role across civilizations and periods. Since the nineteenth century, artists such as Arnold Böcklin, René Magritte, and Rebecca Horn have reinterpreted it anew. Richly illustrated and thoughtfully contextual, the book reveals how a mythical animal can illuminate art’s history and imagination.