A King pursued by a Unicorn ('La chasse royale assaillie par une licorne'), from: The Unicorn Series

A King pursued by a Unicorn is one of six engravings by Jean Duvet which depict the hunt of the unicorn (see also lot 63, The Triumph of the Unicorn). The cycle may have been commissioned by Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henri II’s, as cartoons for tapestries, and the engravings draw inspiration from the hunts and festivals of the royal court. They also reflect the popular attributes of the magical beast in medieval mythology: the ability of a unicorn’s horn to render poisoned water sweet, and it’s deadly effectiveness as a weapon under attack as depicted in this image, in which the unicorn, surrounded by trampled corpses, fatally gores a fallen huntsman. While the unicorn cannot be fed or domesticated, it can be approached by a virgin, a vulnerability which is exploited by the hunters, who use a lute-playing maiden as bait. The cycle ends with the unsuspecting creature lulled to sleep in her lap, captured, harnessed to a chariot and driven back to court by the king and his courtiers, to be a led in a triumphal procession.
Easily recognizable by his highly idiosyncratic, somewhat claustrophobic, tapestry-like style, Jean Duvet’s identity long remained unknown and early cataloguers referred to this mysterious engraver simply as the ‘Master of the Unicorn’.
Bersier records only nine impressions in public collections. Only three other impression have been offer at auction in nearly thirty years.