Dame with unicorn

The work is made in mixed technique.
The unicorn "… can be caught in the following way: an innocent maiden is brought to the place where it lives, and left there alone in the forest. As soon as the unicorn sees her, it jumps into her lap, hugs her, and falls asleep there; then the hunters catch it," according to a late 12th-century bestiary.

Beginning with Physiologus, stories about the unicorn and other animals were often accompanied by interpretations that revealed Christian symbolic meanings. For example, the unicorn was interpreted as Jesus, and the maiden was the Virgin Mary, chosen for her chastity to become His mother. In art, there is even a common allegorical theme where the Annunciation and the Immaculate Conception are depicted as a mystical hunt for a unicorn, with the archangel Gabriel as a hunter blowing a horn, and a pack of dogs symbolizing the virtues.