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This piece is called Portrait of a Lady With a Unicorn by Raphael.

We’re placed before a young woman sitting on a fancy balcony. A low wall separates her from the dreamy, bluish-green landscape behind her. Her body turns slightly, her head faces in our direction, but her eyes dart sharply away. Wisps of baby hair frame her round, rosy cheeks which contrast her small, delicate mouth. On the tippy top of her head, a tiny clasp secures her golden hair that twists away from her face and cascades down her back. A sheer fabric wraps around her shoulders.

Her dress is opulent and expensive. Red velvet sleeves puff out from a tight corset wrapped in fine green silk. Her wide, square neckline showcases an elaborate gold necklace made up of a knotted chain holding a giant pendant with an emerald, a ruby and a large drop pearl.

She comes across as elegant but aloof and completely unfazed by what has to be the tiniest unicorn ever nestled in her lap. We can see her fingers wrapped around its little legs. The tiny creature on the other hand, looks quite cozy and content. Its head turned toward the girl. Its mouth is even slightly open.

Raphael painted the Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn around 1505 or 1506, likely to commemorate a wedding. The influence of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa is undeniable when looking at Raphael’s piece: the balcony setting, the distant landscape, the half-length pose with the sitter turned slightly away.

The identity of the sitter is believed to either be Maddalena Strozzi Doni, a noblewoman who married a wealthy fabric merchant named Agnolo Doni or Laura Orsini, a Roman noblewoman.

But Raphael’s Lady wasn’t always with unicorn. At first, he painted her holding a dog. Dogs were often included in painting to symbolize fidelity so it makes sense that it would be included in a wedding portrait. One theory is that the lap dog portrait was meant for a previous engagement that fell through. Toward the end of the 17th century, The Portrait of a Lady With a Unicorn was transformed into Saint Catherine of Alexandria. Her dress concealed beneath a heavy cloak, her tiny unicorn covered by a martyr’s palm and a spiked wheel.

We don't really know for sure why the painting was altered but it could have been because the painting was in such bad shape at that time. The Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn was disguised as St. Catherine of Alexandria for centuries.

Until 1927, when art historian Roberto Longhi laid his eyes on the painting of St. Catherine, he immediately knew that it was painted by Raphael. Not only that, he also recognized that large swaths of it had been painted over. And he was right.

A restoration was carried out in the 1930s and after nearly 400 years, Raphael’s Lady and her unicorn emerged once again.

There are still so many questions to be answered with this one, which is really annoying actually. But what’s even more annoying is that I’ll never be able to look at a unicorn the same way ever again! Thanks for watching!

References & Further reading:

Wolk-Simon, Linda. “Laura in a Loggia: Raphael's Lady with a Unicorn.” Sublime Beauty: Raphael's Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn (2015): n. pag. Print.
https://borghese.gallery/collection/paintings/portrait-of-young-woman-with-unicorn.html
https://www.collezionegalleriaborghese.it/en/opere/lady-with-unicorn
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25330253-sublime-beauty
https://www.bowdoin.edu/news/2017/11/virgins-unicorns-and-medieval-literature.html
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stuff-about-things-an-art-history-podcast/id1369796265?i=1000542587344
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/artcurious-podcast/id1142736861?i=1000410266525
https://youtu.be/5Uw5CmPSvfw?si=YMt0KsAgFzDLW0QE

Music credits:
Arcadia - Wonders by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Divertissement by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Distant Tension by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Classic Horror 1 - Dark World by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Frost Waltz by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Local Elevator by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/