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Lot Essay
The Triumph of the Unicorn is the final plate in a series of six engravings by Jean Duvet depicting the hunt of the unicorn (see also lot 62, A King pursued by a 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. 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 unsuspecting creature is lulled to sleep in her lap, captured, harnessed to a chariot and driven triumphantly back to court by the king and his courtiers.
In The Triumph of the Unicorn the noble beast is led by the king and queen in a magnificent bejewelled and tasselled harness ahead of a procession of wreath-wearing women, bearing palm branches, and hunters with pikes or blowing horns. They are greeted by a band of musicians playing lutes, bagpipes, guitars and horns, and in the celestial sphere above by Jupiter, the King of the Gods. The winged God of Love, Cupid, flies above the unicorn, holding a victor’s wreath.
The Triumph of the Unicorn recalls both Andrea Mantegna’s The Triumphs of Ceasar (circa 1484-92) and Titian’s The Triumph of Christ (circa 1510-11). It has been interpreted as a metaphor of the Passion and Triumph of Christ in reversing the effects of the Fall, and as an allegory of courtly love.
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 of this plate in public collections. Of great rarity, according to our records no other impression has been offered at auction within the last thirty years.
In The Triumph of the Unicorn the noble beast is led by the king and queen in a magnificent bejewelled and tasselled harness ahead of a procession of wreath-wearing women, bearing palm branches, and hunters with pikes or blowing horns. They are greeted by a band of musicians playing lutes, bagpipes, guitars and horns, and in the celestial sphere above by Jupiter, the King of the Gods. The winged God of Love, Cupid, flies above the unicorn, holding a victor’s wreath.
The Triumph of the Unicorn recalls both Andrea Mantegna’s The Triumphs of Ceasar (circa 1484-92) and Titian’s The Triumph of Christ (circa 1510-11). It has been interpreted as a metaphor of the Passion and Triumph of Christ in reversing the effects of the Fall, and as an allegory of courtly love.
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 of this plate in public collections. Of great rarity, according to our records no other impression has been offered at auction within the last thirty years.