JEAN DUVET (1485-1561)
JEAN DUVET (1485-1561)

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

细节
JEAN DUVET (1485-1561)
A King pursued by a Unicorn ('La chasse royale assaillie par une licorne'), from: The Unicorn Series
engraving
circa 1545-1560
on laid paper, watermark Small Shield with three Fleurs-de-Lys and word Nivelle (Briquet 1839, first recorded in 1569)
a very good, clear and strong impression of this rare print
trimmed inside the platemark but outside the borderline or subject on all sides
in very good condition
Sheet 236 x 393 mm.
出版
Bartsch 40; Robert-Dumesnil 55; Bersier 69; Eisler 66
K. Jacobson (ed.), The French Renaissance in Prints from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, exh. cat., Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, UCLA, Los Angeles, 1995, no. 20 (another impression illustrated).

荣誉呈献

Stefano Franceschi
Stefano Franceschi Specialist

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拍品专文

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.

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