Scotland chose the unicorn as its national animal as they’re associated with purity, strength and power. Pretty admirable qualities, don’t you think?
Unicorns in Art
Today, there seems to be a universal fascination with unicorns. With unicorn-themed birthday parties, tee-shirts, water bottles, and even television shows starring unicorn protagonists at an all-time high, the enchantment with these mythological creatures has important historical roots as well. The portrayal of the unicorn has changed over time, one idea has remained constant: people love the idea of a horse with a horn. With the cultural depiction of the unicorn evolving over time, various symbolic traditions have emerged across eras and cultures. One particularly fascinating connection exists between the representation of women, purity, and yes, you guessed it, unicorns. And before the age of TV and commercialized party favors, art served as a principal vehicle of cultural influence.
Fresco by Domenichino, c. 1604–05 (Palazzo Farnese, Rome), Image is public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia.
When understanding portrayals of the unicorn in art, it’s best to start with French medieval tapestries. These notable rug-like creations portray intimate scenes set amongst foliage and trees. These tapestries feature a unique blend of domesticity; a rug or bed might be seamlessly juxtaposed with naturalistic elements such as trees and leaves. This invites viewers to engage their imagination in new ways. But the imagination doesn’t stop there—these tapestries generally include a woman, often exuding a sense of royalty, placed directly next to a lion or unicorn. One of the most famous medieval French tapestries, The Lady and the Unicorn (La Dame à la licorne), includes six pieces that were first discovered and brought to the public eye in the 19th century. This series was made famous in our modern-day context during a brief but notable appearance in the Harry Potter movies. The particular unicorn seen in The Lady and the Unicorn is often referred to as a heraldic creature, representing an animal used in family genealogy to represent qualities of virtue, purity, and strength.
The Lady and the Unicorn. Image is public doman courtesy of Wikimedia.
You may wonder why the unicorn was chosen to be depicted alongside the ‘Lady’ in this French tapestry series—it is no accident. With a handful of exceptions, since its first appearance in the public eye, the unicorn has almost always been depicted next to a conventionally beautiful, virginal woman. This visual depiction was perpetuated as the unicorn itself became the symbol of purity, healing, and virtue.
Eventually, unicorns were known for their affinity to virgin women. Through countless visual representations, it became evident that the only humans allowed near unicorns were these desirably pure, young women. Through art, a connection was formed between the virgin woman and the unicorn as the quintessence of untouchable chastity.
Though unicorns were often depicted alongside the innocent virgin, they were simultaneously oversexualized in legends and myths throughout the medieval Christian world. As a Filthy article states, “In all of Western history, no beast has been more significant to the imagination and more prominent in literature and art than the unicorn, and none has added a more sexually revealing and universally meaningful legend to the lore of the human race.” The article goes on to recount a disturbing mythological legend that became popularized throughout the Renaissance and into the Middle Ages. I’ll spare you the details—but this legend stated that unicorns required the touch of a virgin, a “symbolic act of taming,” to capture the untamable beast. Gross.
Lady with unicorn, Rafael Santi. Image is public doman, courtesy of Wikimedia.
In today’s context, not much has changed. Women are still expected to embody these contradictory ideals–they must be innocent, alluring, hot, cute, and sexually experienced, but not too promiscuous either. The symbolism of unicorns has remained much the same as well. While many social expectations of women and unicorns were continuously reinforced through visual representations in art, as time progressed, opinions based on cultural norms evolved alongside them. In this, an evident shift in the symbolism surrounding women, purity, and unicorns in art occurred as well. While the connection between women and unicorns may still exist, it seems a more modern-day context offers for a broader range of themes including female strength and resilience. The connection between women, femininity, and the unicorn is a captivating example of how artistic symbols evolve and change over time. The simultaneously virginal and sexualized symbolism of the unicorn has been influential in art and society for centuries. In all of its limiting ideals of purity and virtue, the contemporary depiction of the unicorn seems to embody a more light-hearted, less antiquated approach to womanhood—one of evolution and a newfound sense of belonging.
©ArtRKL ™️ LLC 2021-2023. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ArtRKL ™️ and its underscore design indicate trademarks of ArtRKL ™️ LLC and its subsidiaries.
People in Western Europe during the Middle Ages believed that rare and exotic narwhal tusks were unicorn horns
Except, of course, the piece of ivory in the Cluny’s exhibition – and, presumably, the one that belonged to that 16th Century Pope – never protruded from a unicorn’s skull. If it had, the poor animal would have found it difficult to eat, because whenever he (traditionally, unicorns were almost always male) dipped his head to graze, the tip of his horn would have stuck in the turf, preventing him from munching on a single blade of grass.
Saint Clair Cemin’s sculpture holds the helical tusk of a narwhal (Credit: Courtesy of the artist and Kasmin Gallery)
In fact, the ‘unicorn’s horn’ on display at the Cluny Museum is the helical tusk of a narwhal, a cetacean found in Arctic waters off Greenland, Russia, and Canada. The most distinctive characteristic of the male of the species is its long ‘tusk’ – actually, a protruding canine tooth, which can grow up to 10ft (3.5m) in length. And, according to Béatrice de Chancel-Bardelot, the curator of the Cluny’s exhibition, Magical Unicorns, people in Western Europe during the Middle Ages believed that rare and exotic narwhal tusks were unicorn horns. Accordingly, they were highly prized.
How did narwhal tusks end up in Europe? In Greenland, where they occasionally washed up on beaches, local people recognised that there could be a market further afield for these strange and substantial pieces of ivory. As a result, narwhal tusks entered Europe, via a trading network that passed through Scandinavia, eventually becoming prestigious objects, coveted by princes and popes, even though they didn’t know what they were.
Italian merchant and explorer Marco Polo travelled to Asia and saw rhinoceroses, which he believed were unicorns
Who could blame them? Few Europeans had clapped eyes on a narwhal – and so, confronted with these long, mysterious ‘horns’, scholars turned to ancient texts, seeking clarity. Erroneously, they assumed that they must have come from the Monoceros, the Greek name for a one-horned beast described by, for instance, the 1st Century Roman writer Pliny the Elder, as “a very fierce animal” with a horse’s body, the head of a stag, an elephant’s feet, and the tail of a boar. Supposedly, said Pliny, the Monoceros emitted a deep bellow, and had a single black horn, almost 3ft (0.9m) long, projecting from the middle of its forehead. Oh, and it was impossible, he wrote, to capture one alive. Today, scholars believe that he was describing a rhinoceros. The Latin for Monoceros is Unicornis, from which our word, unicorn, derives.
By the 12th Century, narwhal tusks were already thought to be unicorn horns. Valued as wonders of nature, they were kept in church treasuries, and sometimes used to make candlesticks. One twisting example, more than 6ft (1.8m) long, documented in the treasury of the Abbey of Saint-Denis by the end of the 15th Century, is the earliest exhibit in the Cluny’s show.
Sans titre (Licorne), Miguel Branco. The connotation of purity may explain why the unicorn is often white (Credit: Collection Victor Pinto da Fonseca)
As the Middle Ages wore on, ‘unicorn horns’ fascinated scholars who were increasingly interested in natural history. Many medieval encyclopaedias and bestiaries – including some 13th Century examples on display at the Cluny – illustrate unicorns, providing the earliest instances of unicorns in Western art. When the Italian merchant and explorer Marco Polo travelled to Asia, he saw rhinoceroses, which he believed were unicorns: “He was a little disappointed,” says Chancel-Bardelot, “because they weren’t white, and their horns were short and thick, unlike the long, beautiful, spiralled tusk of the narwhal.” Still, people came to think that the unicorn – which is also mentioned in the Bible, where, says Chancel-Bardelot, it is a “wild and menacing animal” – lived far away, in eastern lands. During the 15th Century, a canon of Mainz cathedral recounted that, during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he had spotted a unicorn, among other strange animals, in the Sinai Desert.
Supposedly, only a virgin maiden could tempt a unicorn into captivity
Over time, the unicorn accrued various associations. Its horns were said to have magical powers: they could bring water to the boil, or, if dipped into a drink or added to food, detoxify poison (13th Century Arabic medicine already used them as an antidote). This explains why they appealed to paranoid rulers throughout Europe. Unicorn horns were also said to purify water. The Cluny show contains a striking copper-alloy ewer, or water container, from c1400, cast in the shape of a unicorn, used for the symbolic washing of hands during mass or before a meal.
This 15th Century water container was used for the symbolic washing of hands during mass or before a meal (Credit: MN-Grand Palais)
This association with purity extended to female sexuality, too. Supposedly, only a virgin maiden could tempt a unicorn into captivity; otherwise, they had a reputation as elusive beasts, too swift to be caught. (As late as the 20th Century, a French car manufacturer produced an automobile known as the Licorne – French for unicorn – playing on the creature’s legendary speed.) Consequently, the unicorn – despite the potentially phallic nature of its defining characteristic – became a symbol of chastity and feminine purity. In the late Middle Ages, unicorns were used as emblems by various princesses and noblewomen. In 1447, for instance, the Italian artist Pisanello created a portrait medal of Cecilia Gonzaga, daughter of the first marquess of Mantua, featuring a unicorn as a symbol of her chastity.
This connotation of purity may explain why the unicorn is often white. That said, its appearance could change, depending on where it was depicted. During the Middle Ages, Italian unicorns looked like goats or even camels, with shaggy fur, while, in German-speaking countries, the unicorn often had a brown or dappled coat. In a sense, this shape-shifting quality is unsurprising, given that the unicorn is a composite beast that exists only in the imagination.
This tapestry, from the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, shows a small white unicorn leaping onto the lap of the Virgin Mary (Credit: CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection)
Local variations could change the unicorn’s meaning, too: a tapestry in the Cluny’s exhibition, on loan from the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, reveals that, in the Rhine Valley during the 15th and 16th Centuries, the hunt of the unicorn became associated with the Annunciation. In the tapestry, we see the Archangel Gabriel blowing a horn and holding a hunting dog upon a leash, while a small white unicorn leaps onto the lap of the Virgin Mary, seated in an enclosed garden. The unicorn is thus, says Chancel-Bardelot, “associated with Christ and his purity, free of sin.”
According to Chancel-Bardelot, however, the true “golden age” of the unicorn in Western European art coincided with the late Middle Ages, in the 14th and 15th Centuries – the period that gave birth to the Cluny’s greatest treasure, The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. An elegant white unicorn appears in every one of the six exquisite tapestries in the set. Each also features an opulently dressed noblewoman, accompanied by a lion and (mostly) a lady-in-waiting, all floating against a rich, red background, full of flowering plants and various other animals, including monkeys and rabbits. The meaning of the sixth tapestry, which contains a tent bearing the cryptic inscription Mon Seul Désir (My Sole Desire), continues to be debated today. Scholars agree, though, that the tapestries were woven around 1500 – by which time, the unicorn had become a popular element in heraldry (it is, for example, the national animal of Scotland). The Cloisters museum in New York also boasts a beautiful set of seven magnificent Unicorn Tapestries, likewise probably designed in Paris at the turn of the 16th Century.
The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries were rediscovered in the 19th Century (Credit: RMN-Grand Palais (Musée de Cluny – Musée National du Moyen Âge) / M Urtado)
How Long Have People Believed in Unicorns?
The Scottish national animal has awed people for over 3,000 years. In today’s society, there’s continued enjoyment and popularity with no sign of the mythical creature falling out of favour. In fact, the unicorn has been mentioned in two of the world’s oldest and most prominent religious books: The Bible and the Quran. For a while, the unicorn was even used as a symbol for Jesus Christ.
When’s National Unicorn Day?
Yes, National Unicorn Day is a thing – it’s celebrated on 9th April in a variety of ways.
While many people are happy to simply don their favourite sparkly horned headband, Scotland has been known to take a more reverent approach. It’s their national animal after all. On Unicorn Day in 2017, artist Woody Fox created a seven-foot sculpture of a unicorn made from willow for Crawick Multiverse in Dumfries and Galloway.
But don’t worry, there’s still an element of whimsy to the day. In 2019, the folk at Stirling Castle even tracked down a unicorn for the children to pet. This made the day extra special and reaffirmed the strength of having this magical creature as the national animal of Scotland.
Where Can I Find Unicorns in Scotland?
Finding Scotland’s national animal may be easier than you think. To get an up-close view of the unicorn in all its glory, you may want to consider visiting the following locations:
– Stirling Castle, Stirling – Statues, tapestries and coats of arms throughout the castle
– Delgatie Castle, Aberdeenshire – Statues flanking the entrance
– The Stables at Cromarty on The Black Isle – A life-sized model unicorn can be found within the stables of this Highland peninsula.
– St Andrews University, St Andrews – Stonemasonry flanking doorways
– Springburn Park, Glasgow – The Doulton Unicorn pillar
– Shilling Brewing Co, Glasgow – There is a unicorn mural
– 62 Union Row, Aberdeen – There is a Bordalo II Unicorn mural
– Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh – On the gates outside of Holyrood
It’s also rumoured that the notorious Duke of Wellington Statue in Glasgow, often spotted with a single traffic cone on its head, is sometimes adorned with a second traffic cone to transform his humble horse into Scotland’s national animal.
