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Topics

Creatures

  • Summary
A Virgin and a Unicorn, Representing Chastity
Image credit: Wellcome Collection

A Virgin and a Unicorn, Representing Chastity

Dosso Dossi (c.1486–1542) (circle of)

Wellcome Collection

Creatures from myths, fables, history and literature play a significant part in art. In Western art they include the many strange beings of Greek mythology: the one-eyed giant cyclops, the snake-headed Medusa, the half-man and half-horse centaurs. Christianity’s devils and demons take varied forms, some seductive and some terrifying, as in the well-known paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. The legend of Saint George and the Dragon was a popular subject.


Read more

Art was able to bring to life the imagination of visionary artists of the Romantic period like William Blake and Henry Fuseli, and to bring relief to disturbed minds such a Richard Dadd’s. The late nineteenth-century Symbolist movement revived an interest in imagined and fantastical creatures, bringing together poetry and painting.

Artworks

  • A Virgin and a Unicorn, Representing Chastity
    A Virgin and a Unicorn, Representing Chastity Dosso Dossi (c.1486–1542) (circle of)
    Wellcome Collection
  • Puck
    Puck Richard Dadd (1817–1886)
    Harris Museum & Art Gallery
  • The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke
    The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke Richard Dadd (1817–1886)
    Tate
  • The Naiads
    The Naiads Gioacchino Pagliei (1852–1896)
    Nottingham City Museums & Galleries
  • Birdman
    Birdman Stefan Gorski (b.1932)
    Nottingham City Museums & Galleries
  • Naïades
    Naïades Gioacchino Pagliei (1852–1896)
    Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum
  • Ju Ju Bird No. 2
    Ju Ju Bird No. 2 Winston Branch (b.1947)
    Herbert Art Gallery & Museum
  • 190 more

Stories

  • Sidney Herbert Sime: an artist with an inherent bent towards mystery

    Mary Broughton

  • Under the sea: monsters and mythical creatures of the deep

    Victoria Rodrigues O'Donnell

  • Mermaids: a queer twist in the tail

    Sacha Coward

  • Richard Dadd and the magical genre of Victorian fairy painting

    Nina Allan

  • Patterns in the sky: the mysterious landscapes of Sidney Herbert Sime

    Jade King

  • Enchanting friend or fiendish foe? Fairies in Scottish art

    Dawn Geddes

  • Art Matters podcast: the magic of fairy tales in art

    Ferren Gipson

  • Sparking the Gothic imagination: Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' and Polidori's 'The Vampyre'

    Andrew Shore

Learning resources

  • 19-end-result-hybrid-creature-2-1-1.jpg
    Activity
    Create a wire hybrid creature
    • KS2 (ENG)
      KS2 (NI)
      CfE L2 (SCO)
      PS3 (WAL)
      KS3 (ENG)
      KS3 (NI)
      CfE L3 (SCO)
      CfE L4 (SCO)
      KS3 (WAL)
  • FK2_GB_S002_023.jpg
    Lesson plan
    'The Kelpies': ancient myth in modern art
    • KS3 (ENG)
      KS3 (NI)
      CfE L3 (SCO)
      KS3 (WAL)

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® is a registered trade mark of the Public Catalogue Foundation.
Art UK is the operating name of the Public Catalogue Foundation, a charity registered in England and Wales (1096185) and Scotland (SC048601).