Famous Unicorns and Unicorn Paintings:

The unicorn is an animal shaped like a goat, deer, or a horse with a horn on its forehead. The unicorn probably emerged from ancient anecdotal and hearsay reports of animals such as the rhinoceros.

Over time the mythology of the animal developed a life of its own, and the unicorn emerged as a mythical creature in its own right. Collected below are just some of the many guises and versions of the unicorn throughout history.

Within the western tradition the unicorn starts as a relatively small animal with a short tail, cloven hooves and highly variable characteristics sometime including whiskers and a lion's mane. But modern representations almost always show the unicorn as a full-sized white horse with a long spiral horn.

There are nine mentions of the unicorn in the King James Bible. For example: "God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn." (Numbers 23:22)

In most of these cases the word 'unicorn' is being given as a translation for Reem. Equally strong cases can be made that the animal referred to was the wild ox, or even the rhinoceros. Indeed, most other English translations of the Bible translate Reem as "wild ox".

This painting by Francesco Di Giorgio Martini depicted a female representing chastity and a unicorn.

This picture is very heavily reproduced probably because it is simply very decorative and has strong colors suitable for use in interior design.

However having a large reproduction of this picture in oils on your wall is rather missing the point. the original is an illuminated manuscript.

Around this time it was not uncommon to pair the unicorn with a female serving as an allegory for qualities such as chastity or innocence.

The unicorn seems to have a dual role of echoing the theme of purity, but also being a powerful pseudo-masculine force that can be controlled or tamed only by a good and pure woman.

Maiden with a Unicorn by Leonardo Da Vinci shows a placid, small but horse-shaped unicorn leashed and under the control of a maiden. Da Vinci wrote: "For the love it bears to fair maidens [the unicorn] forgets its ferocity and wildness and laying aside all fear it will go to a seated damsel and sleep in her lap, and thus the hunters take it."

This ink drawing is probably from early in Da Vinci's career. In this picture the unicorn is thought to represent chastity. The unicorn was a popular allegory for female chastity in this period and a similar depiction was painted by Giorgione. Although the Da Vinci sketch seems to be a study for a painting, no painting was apparently produced.

The unicorn appears in a number of prominent tapestries. Perhaps the most famous is a series of tapestries on display at "The Cloisters" in New York which houses some of the great medieval works in the possession of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. .

The seven tapestries in the series depict the hunt capture and both the death and the captivity of the unicorn. The are deliberate symbolic parallels in the tapestries between the treatment of the unicorn and the torments and crucifiction of Christ.

I would highly recommend visiting the Cloisters, and the Hunt of the Unicorn is the Jewel in the collection housed there.

Remixes: Coral Silverman.

This charming oil painting by Raphael Sanzio shows a rather diminutive unicorn in the care of a blonde lady.

This painting is currently held in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. The intended meaning of the painting is not clear but it has been suggested that the unicorn my represent Christ or purity.

The woman depicted may be Saint Catherine of Alexandria or Giulia Farnese.

At some point in its history the unicorn was painted over, but it was rediscovered and restored in 1936.

Despite Jacob Bartsch's best efforts, it never really caught on with the general public due to not being visible to the naked eye. Discovered in 1612, it is however still recognized under this name today.

The Camphurch (a.k.a. "Unicorn of Aldrovandus") is a form of unicorn. The example shown here is by Ulisse Aldrovandi in the Monstrorum Historia (1642). The campchurch has two webbed bird feet in its hind legs.

Andre Thevet also described the campchurch in 1575 and reported that it lived " near the Strait of Malacca", ate fish and was able to move its horn at will.

Most modern commentators also agree that a campchurch is a unicorn that is aquatic and/or part fish (see also Sarah Harmon) although recent version often have different physical characteristics from the historical accounts.

Another 17th century unicorn also shows a mane. This is from A Description of the Nature of Four-Footed Beasts by Joannes Jonstomus (1678).

It might seem odd to put a piece of relatively modern advertising on this list. But this picture from a perfume advertisement shows Helena Rubinstein with a unicron is a pretty clear homage to the 'Hunt of the Unicorn' tapestries. I think it is well composed and just a little suggestive. It goes to show a piece of commercial art can fit into an artistic tradition.

A recent series of paintings of a nude Obama and unicorns has caused quite a stir on the internet. Dan Lacey (a.k.a. Painter of Pancakes) has an online gallery devoted to this subject and prints for sale. Shown right: excerpt from Unicorn New Year.

The internet now circulates a lot of art and cartoon memes, including some with unicorns such as:

• Lady Gaga eats Unicorn
• Radiant Farms Unicorn Meat (a real fake product)
• Robocop on a Unicorn
• Unicorns miss the Ark (by Aarbee, Jeff Larson)

In most species the horn develops as a small bud on the skin. This bud can, accidentally or deliberately, be transplanted to other locations to produce a "real" unicorn. It may then grow and attach to the skull in this new position. Thus the 'unicorn' pattern of a single central horn on the forehead has occured in many species including deer and goats.