Portrait of Young Woman with Unicorn is a painting, oil on canvas applied to wood, by Raphael, c. 1506. It is in the Galleria Borghese in Rome.
The portrait appears to have been influenced by the Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo between 1503 and 1506. The work was of uncertain attribution until recent times. In the 1760 inventory of the Gallery, the subject of the painting was identified as Saint Catherine of Alexandria and attributed to Perugino. A restoration of the painting in 1934-36 confirmed art historian Roberto Longhi's hypothesis that the work was by Raphael, and the removal of heavy repainting revealed the unicorn, traditionally a symbol of purity in medieval romance, in place of a Saint Catherine wheel. Later restoration work on the painting in 1959 revealed the image of a dog, even earlier than the unicorn, also a symbol of chastity and conjugal fidelity. The young woman in the painting was a bride and this painting was a wedding gift to the engaged couple from Raphael.
Famous quotes containing the words young, woman and/or unicorn:
“I regard a love for poetry as one of the most needful and helpful elements in the life- outfit of a human being. It was the greatest of blessings to me, in the long days of toil to which I was shut in much earlier than most young girls are, that the poetry I held in my memory breathed its enchanted atmosphere through me and around me, and touched even dull drudgery with its sunshine.”
—Lucy Larcom (1824–1893)
“Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”
—Bible: New Testament Jesus, in Matthew, 5:28.
From the Sermon on the Mount.
“The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and said “Talk, child.”
Alice could not help her lips curling up into a smile as she began: “Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too? I never saw one alive before!”
“Well, now that we have seen each other,” said the Unicorn, “if you’ll believe in me, I’ll believe in you. Is that a bargain?””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)