Art, literature & history
Shield with a Unicorn, Held by a Lady
1480/90
- Dating
- Date range
- Held at
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Medium
- Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
- Dimensions
- 7.6 × 7.6 cm (3 × 3 in.)
- Collection no.
- 1944.610
- Attribution
- By the artist
- Image rights
- CC0 1.0License details
Martin Schongauer. Shield with a Unicorn, Held by a Lady. Martin Schongauer; Art Institute of Chicago; Clarence Buckingham Collection. CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). Full-frame proportional resize and JPEG compression.
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
About this artwork
Shield with a Unicorn, Held by a Lady — Martin Schongauer. 1480/90.
Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper. Dimensions: 7.6 × 7.6 cm (3 × 3 in.).
Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.
In contrast to the wild man, woman, and child seen nearby (1956.917 and 1944.608), this engraving portrays a member of civilization. Only virgins were said to be able to attract and tame unicorns; by including the mythical beast in the shield, Schongauer emphasized the subject’s purity. Later Northern European artists such as Albrecht Dürer would frequently feature this type of grassy bench in depictions of tender moments between the Virgin Mary and Christ Child.
Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.
Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.
Location checked Sep 10, 2026. This does not indicate whether the work is on display.