International Society for the Study of Pilgrimage Arts
Abstract
The unicorn is a ubiquitous figure redolent with symbolic meaning in the visual culture of the high and late Middle Ages. It is primarily a symbol of Christ in bestiaries and the Physiologus tradition, the hunt for the unicorn is an allegory of the Passion, but scenes of the unicorn near fountains or water sources suggest the latemedieval perception of the horn as a panacea. Beyond this, the one-horned creature represents courtly love as the poet-lover falls prey to the beautiful virgin. Because of this variety, unicorns also populate the genre of emblems1 - an allegorical mode of representation derived from medieval bestiaries consisting of three parts: title, image, and motto. While scholars have shown the significance2 of unicorns in a range of literary and visual arts,3 little scholarship has examined unicorn iconography in early emblem books of 1540s Europe nor has there been much formal analysis of emblem images combined with literary analysis of the accompanying text in emblem books.4 This article considers the shift of unicorn iconography from the allegory of Christ in medieval bestiaries to the symbol of poet-lover in Maurice Scève’s early emblem book Délie, object de plus haulte vertu (1544). The article title indicates a “vision” or sighting of the unicorn in antiquity, the revisions of written and visual depictions throughout history, and the unicorn’s gaze in emblems
