Venationes ferarum, avium, piscium (Hunts of wild animals, birds and fish). Plate 29. Unicorn hunt.

This print is the work of three major Flemish figures of the late 16th century: the original artist Jan Van der Straet (a.k.a. Stradanus), the engraver Jan Collaert II; and the publisher Philips Galle. The success of Van der Straet's cartoons for a hunting series to decorate the Medici villa at Poggio a Caiano, near Florence (1566-77), led to the leading Flemish publishers Heronymus Cock, and subsequently Galle, to commission related engravings in the 1570s and 1580s. (Galle also engraved/published other works by Van der Straet, including his Crucifixion, in Te Papa's collection).

These proved so popular that in 1596 Galle published the ambitious, 105 plate volume Venationes, ferarum, arium, piscium (Hunts of wild animals, birds and fish), engaging several engravers including Collaert, all based on original drawings by the prolific Van der Straet.  Bird hunts form an important sub-theme. The volume was republished by Philips Galle's son, Johannes, in 1634.

This print deliberately strays into the mythical, and depicts a hunt of unicorns, some of whom appear to have the upper hand. A translation of the Renaissance Latin inscription is kindly provided by Tim Smith, Victoria University of Wellington: Not far from the banks of the Indus, on their king’s orders, groups of peasants pursue donkeys for the horn that protrudes from their foreheads. Next they make saucers and cups, with which they cure illness, tend to wounds, and drive out poison'.

See: Chris Michaelis, http://blogs.bl.uk/european/2015/09/joannes-stradanus-and-his-hunting-scenes.html 

Dr Mark Stocker     Curator, Historical International Art      March 2017