Anonymous, Italian School 15th century, Lynx and a Recumbent Unicorn , Brush in brown, white and black tempera, on vellum, Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1909 , I, 82
A Page From a Medieval Model Book
Unsure what a lynx looks like? If you were a medieval artist, a model book like this one would have been the place to check. Model books were essential reference works for medieval artists who wished to depict animals. Rendered in careful detail, the animals appear in profile, in static positions devoid of background. They were drawn generally not from life but copied from earlier depictions in older model books or works of art, as is obviously the case with the unicorn. Even more than one hundred years later, the unicorn was believed to exist.