Why we’ve always loved unicorns?

Pedro_P

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The mysterious and elusive unicorn can be seen throughout Western art. What is it about the mythical beasts that has such enduring appeal, asks Alastair Sooke.


▼ Have you ever seen a unicorn? I don’t mean in a painting or a tapestry, or in the form of a piece of glittery merchandise marketed at young girls. I’m talking about an actual unicorn, ie a horse-like creature with cloven hooves and a goat’s tufty beard, and, of course, a long, spiralling horn – their most recognisable characteristic – erupting from its forehead. Because I have. Or, at least, I can say, hand on heart, that I’ve seen a unicorn’s horn. I came across one recently in Paris, in an exhibition at the Musée de  Cluny, which has a spellbinding collection of medieval art.
There it was, spot-lit and mounted on a dark bronze base: a tapering piece of tawny ivory, spiralling upwards for several feet. The base was designed by a postmodern American sculptor, Saint Clair Cemin, who was inspired by a pedestal in the form of a unicorn’s head, conceived by the Italian Renaissance goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini for a similar horn that once belonged to Pope Clement VII.
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.
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? (▪ ▪ ▪)

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Rhett_Bassard

Some of us love unicorns for the 'jelly beans'...

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Pedro_P

Rhett Bassard 22-6-2019 12:23 PM
Some of us love unicorns for the 'jelly beans'...

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Why play with a unicorn?
I think it would be better to cook it on the grill...

Obviously following the old recipe... Delicious.
Take a look here: https://www.craxme.com/thread-17638-1-1.html?mobile=no