The Eternal Unicorn

This illumination of a manuscript of the Devisement du monde (Book of the Marvels of the Worldor The Travels of Marco Polo), shows us a beautiful white unicorn moving graciously among real exotic animals. It is true to standard medieval representations, but not to Marco Polo’s description, which is that of — a rhinoceros!
The image of the unicorn, as a prancing horse with a spiralled horn that can only be captured by the scent of a virgin, crosses the centuries with remarkable durability, from the renaissance tapestries of the series The Lady and the Unicorn to Ridley Scott’s fantasy film Legend (1985). Today it is omnipresent in popular culture as the symbol of a “girly” universe: magical and sweet, often parodic.