Heraldic Panel with Arms of Lichtenfels and a Unicorn Hunt (c. 1515): Art, History and Details

Heraldic Panel with Arms of Lichtenfels and a Unicorn Hunt (c. 1515) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The upper half of this panel shows a unicorn hunt reconfigured to represent the annunciation. Only a virgin could lure a unicorn who is seen here grasping the horn of the mythical beast; not far behind are the hunter and hounds. The Virgin here is the Virgin Mary and arriving to the scene is the angel Gabriel dressed as a hunter.

Object facts

• Title: Heraldic Panel with Arms of Lichtenfels and a Unicorn Hunt
• Date: c. 1515
• Culture: Germany or Switzerland, 16th century
• Type: Glass
• Technique: white glass with silver stain and pot metal
• Dimensions: Overall: 39.1 x 28.9 cm (15 3/8 x 11 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1954.149

A detail from the museum

The red glass is actually layered over clear glass. Otherwise, it would be too dark to see through.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Egli, Michael and Hans Christoph von Tavel, Niklaus Manuel: Catalogue Raisonné. Basel: Schwabe, 2017.
• Cohen, Meredith. "The Bestiary beyond the Book." In Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World. Elizabeth Morrison and Larisa Grollemond, eds. pp. 177 - 225. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2019.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.