The secrets of the Unicorn.
Cluny Museum/Flammarion| N° d'inventaire | 31420 |
| Format | 16.9 x 19.5 |
| Détails | 141 p., paperback |
| Publication | Paris, 2022 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782711871315 |
First described five centuries BC, the unicorn has long intrigued zoologists, attracted travelers, seduced artists, and inspired poets. But does this composite animal, which borrows part of its anatomy from the deer, the goat, the mare, and even the donkey, the lion, or the elephant, really exist?
Until the beginning of the modern era, the highest authorities of Western knowledge - Aristotle, Pliny, the Bible, the bestiaries - answered in the affirmative; and many images and works of art depicted it.
The first doubts appeared in the 16th century, but it was not until the Enlightenment that the unicorn disappeared from zoology textbooks. From then on, only artists and poets remained faithful to it and even made it the star animal of their dreamlike and symbolic bestiaries in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The new presentation at the Cluny Museum in Paris of the famous tapestries of The Lady and the Unicorn provides an opportunity to take stock of the history of this indomitable creature, a symbol of purity and virginity, whose marvelous horn has the power to annihilate the effects of poison and ward off the forces of evil.
First described five centuries BC, the unicorn has long intrigued zoologists, attracted travelers, seduced artists, and inspired poets. But does this composite animal, which borrows part of its anatomy from the deer, the goat, the mare, and even the donkey, the lion, or the elephant, really exist?
Until the beginning of the modern era, the highest authorities of Western knowledge - Aristotle, Pliny, the Bible, the bestiaries - answered in the affirmative; and many images and works of art depicted it.
The first doubts appeared in the 16th century, but it was not until the Enlightenment that the unicorn disappeared from zoology textbooks. From then on, only artists and poets remained faithful to it and even made it the star animal of their dreamlike and symbolic bestiaries in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The new presentation at the Cluny Museum in Paris of the famous tapestries of The Lady and the Unicorn provides an opportunity to take stock of the history of this indomitable creature, a symbol of purity and virginity, whose marvelous horn has the power to annihilate the effects of poison and ward off the forces of evil.