Stephanie G. Mathis A new Scottish museum is tracing the mythical hoofprints of the unicorn, which is the country’s national animal.
The Perth Museum will open to the public on 30 March, and its first exhibition will simply be called “Unicorn.” This show is billed as Britain’s largest to date to explore the cultural history of the magical creature from antiquity up to the present.
The museum wrote in a press release that “the unicorn has been a enduring and enigmatic icon throughout the centuries; a component in medieval medicine, an iconic character of Scottish royalty, beloved by children, and an icon of the LGBTQI+ communities.”
The museum will be presenting an ode to unicorns that include manuscripts, drawings, coins, sculptures, and illustrations. It may also have shop signs. Artnet Min Chen reported that the collection was made up of historical loans as well as objects of local importance.
The first mentions of unicorns are thousands of years old. Around 400 B.C.E., the Greek historian Ctesias made mention of them when he described them as a horselike creature with white skin and a pointed forehead horn. In the Bible, a similar creature is also called a reem, which, in some versions, is translated as “unicorn.”
Mike MacEacheran, BBC Travel, wrote in 2019 that the unicorn first appeared in Scotland in the 12th century. In the 15th century, the unicorn was a symbol of power and purity that Scottish nobility and kings identified with.
The unicorn became Scotland’s national animal. According to Malcolm Offord, U.K. government minister for Scotland, in the statement.
“Unicorn,” a show that will showcase the long history of this creature, will feature a variety of artistic pieces from different centuries. The museum will display Luca Longhi’s famous Lady and the Unicorn, a painting by the Renaissance artist that depicts the unicorn in its enduring symbolism throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern day. It also has a 19th-century wand topped off with a sterling silver unicorn. This was made around the time George IV’s coronation took place in 1821. The wand was used at Charles 3’s crowning last year.
The artifacts on display are not unicorn horns but animal horns. The museum says that people once thought the tusks of the dolphin-like Arctic narwhal came from unicorns. The “Danny Jewel” pendant, made from narwhal horn and gold and a 12th-century carved narwhal’s tusk, will be on display.
The exhibition will include both historical and contemporary representations of unicorns. Toys and films, as well as video games, show how the creature has become “a familiar, but changing cultural icon,” according to J.P. Reid. He is a senior new project officer at Cultural Perth and Kinross Trust, which co-manages this museum. Six newly commissioned pieces will conclude “Unicorn,” exploring the ways in which the unicorn has become a symbol for the LGBTQ community.
Reid adds, “With its long, complex, and sometimes contradictory, history, the unicorn is a subject that has always been popular among artists, writers and musicians. Filmmakers, activists, and filmmakers have also used it as a theme.” It is a symbol that can explore ideas such as authenticity, gender, nationalism, and belief.
The Perth Museum was created by transforming Perth’s old City Hall for a total of PS27 million ($34 million). The museum will house the “Stone of Destiny,” which has been used in coronations for centuries.
