// POLYCHROME OAK
// L. 125 x W. 32 CM

// UNIQUE PIECE

The nature and subject matter of these carved wooden elements seem to be easy to read. But only at first sight. First of all, one might wonder about their original location, as their shape suggests a pedestal or perhaps a sill function. But their context, civil or religious, cannot be guessed at, not even by the subject, whose religious symbolism rubs shoulders with the secular motif. 


In these two narrow spaces, the sculptor represents a woman and a unicorn on one side and a man and a unicorn on the other. Could this be a unicorn hunt?

The story begins with a male figure who appears to be playing a flute over a unicorn as depicted in the late Middle Ages. The equine-looking creature becomes a monster by hybridization and we see a goatee under its trough, hooves cloven like paws and a twisted horn. His once colourful coat becomes whiter and whiter as the Renaissance approaches. Its floppy ears do not give it the threatening look that it had in previous centuries, but rather its reputation as a gentle and peaceful animal, common in the late Middle Ages. Previously terrifying and bellicose, it has now become wary and fearful. But the difficulty of its hunt still requires a young virgin as bait. a young virgin who is pretended to be abandoned in the woods. The unicorn, irresistibly attracted to the girl attracted by the girl - for reasons always linked to her virginity - can thus be killed or captured. It should be noted that once killed, the unicorn always resurrects, as is the case in the famous painting of the Unicorn Hunt (1495-1505) in the MET Museum in New York.

One may wonder, however, about what seems to be the stratagem used here to chase the animal away: the man seems to play the flute. In Persian folklore, the horn of the unicorn is pierced with holes and sounds like a flute when the wind blows. Is it a question of attracting the unicorn by imitating the sound it makes? In any case, the man was able to get very close to the unicorn. And this very willingness to get close to it betrays the will to hunt it.

The outcome of the hunt can be seen in the second sculpted element. A woman has taken the man's place and the unicorn is dead, a macabre grin distorts its mouth, again very similar to the hanging in The Hunt, when The unicorn is served and taken to the castle. Surprisingly, the unicorn's horn is no longer twisted and the animal wears a collar, a symbol of its new domesticity. This suggests that, as in the painting of The Hunt, the death of the unicorn is merely a prelude to its resurrection. Nevertheless, the two events here form a single image, made legible by the sculptor's inventiveness.

In the Middle Ages, unicorn hunts were accompanied by symbolic readings in which the hunted unicorn was recognised as Christ entrusted to a Virgin and then tormented by men. Pure and noble, the creature is only worthy of a figure equal to her, the lady of courtly love. The myth oscillates between monstrous folklore and the spiritual quest for Love, whether secular or religious.

The myth of the unicorn and the fantasies that accompanied the alleged powers of its horn aroused lust. The most precious cabinets of curiosity had to have one. Coinciding with the era of great expeditions, the swindlers set out to satisfy the demand, making the mythical horn a reality. A traffic in narwhal rostrum, sold as real unicorn horns, was set up in the 15th and 16th centuries. As a rare and marvellous object that became a reality, the horn further enhanced the symbolism attributed to it.

These medieval sculptures are presented in the gallery and are echoed in the Renard roux and the Effraie domestique. Alternatives to hunting trophies, they remind us that, like the unicorn, man seeks to unicorn, man seeks to appropriate what fascinates him. Wouldn't creating the object of admiration through art be the best way to pay tribute to it, without damage?

Text by Marielle Brie

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