Virgin with a Unicorn

Little is known about this unusual bronze sculpture. A draped female figure holding a tablet sits on a rocky outcrop beside a basin; her right hand may once have held a stylus. To the right, water flows from a spring into the basin, and a unicorn bows its head towards the flow of water. Anthony Radcliffe (unpublished, undated note in V&A files) observed that the iconography of the unicorn purifying the spring may be an Este allegory; similar imagery appears on medals of Borso d'Este (e.g., one by Jacopo Lixignolo, dated 1460) and in his illuminated Bible (Biblioteca Estense, Modena). Lukatis (2010) observed a connection between the present object and a drawing (Graphischen Sammlung der Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, inv. 17151) that depicts a woman, basin, and unicorn similarly disposed. The sheet is assigned to an unknown Italian draughtsman of the sixteenth century. (Last updated March 2025)