Unicorn: The Mythical Beast in Art

"Unicorn: The Mythical Beast in Art "

from Saturday, October 25, 2025 to Sunday, February 1, 2026

Museum Barberini | Postdam, Germany

More than any other animal, the unicorn has inspired the imagination. Documented in numerous cultures across centuries, the unicorn appears in Christian and non-European art as well as in science and medicine and invokes a wide range of symbolic meanings. Artistic images of the unicorn invite us to reflect on our understanding of the world, on ambiguities and projections.

For the first time, the theme of the unicorn is explored and exhibited in a survey that extends from antiquity to contemporary art, including works of Marie Cecile Thijs.

150 works and objects are presented, including the art of Arnold Böcklin, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Baldung Grien, Angela Hampel, Rebecca Horn, René Magritte, Gustave Moreau, Aurélie Nemours, Olaf Nicolai, Joachim Sandrart, Marie Cécile Thijs, and Maerten de Vos.
The historical spectrum of exhibited works ranges from the second millennium BC to the present day and encompasses not only paintings and prints, but also sculptures, manuscripts, tapestries, video works, and Kunstkammer objects.

Lenders to the exhibition include the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence, the Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden, the Historisches Museum Basel, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Musée du Louvre, Paris, the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.