Unicorns and Tapestries · 4:18pm May 29th, 2016
Some unicorns have a thing about tapestries. And some tapestries have a thing about unicorns. This weekend, I had an opportunity to research the connection, as I have the good fortune to find myself in Paris. I have passed through the French metropolis many times, but usually I’m so rushed that I never see much beyond the railway stations. This time I decided I would make the effort to visit one cultural venue, and went to the Musée de Cluny, the museum of medieval art, to see their famous set of six tapestries: The Lady and the Unicorn (La Dame à la licorne).
Tapestries were the art of choice for medieval French aristocrats. Just the thing you need to hang up on the stone walls of your gothic chateau to make it feel like home. This particularly splendid set was commissioned from some master artist in Flanders around 1500 and is regarded as a masterpiece. Among the other medieval art—romanesque statues, complicated religious iconography, and ornate caskets—this is a much more playful work. The unicorn—a white bearded stallion—puts his hooves onto the lady’s lap, and lets her caress his somewhat oversized horn, while a lion sits to one side watching, apparently resigned to being the second-favourite pet.
In one image they are wearing crusader capes (well not in a medieval sense—this has nothing to do with the war to recover Jerusalem—but they are playing dress-up like Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.)
They are surrounded by flowers, frolicking bunnies, birds, monkeys and other critters.
But this is not just an old collection of cute animal pictures. There is plenty of academic discussion on how they should be interpreted. Five tapestries depict the five senses: touch, taste, spell, hearing, sight. But the meaning of the sixth is more of a mystery, like the sixth element of harmony.
It would seem very likely that these images are in the source book of the artists working on the show. They have found their way into other popular culture—gracing the walls of the Gryffindor common room in the Harry Potter films. They also have their own fanfiction.
There is another set of unicorn tapestries of the same period in The Cloisters museum in New York. The Hunt of the Unicorn set has a more violent subject matter. They are said to be just as splendid as those in Paris.
I've seen both sets, and I have to say that they're both incredible, though the ones in the Cloisters aren't quite as well preserved. BTW, if you ever get up to Sterling, they have a reproduction set of The Unicorn Hunt that's awesome. Done with period materials and dyes, they show what the originals looked like before time took its toll.
Alas, Medieval era art just never did much for me, though it is kind of nice to see something from that period that isn't either war or Jesus.
3981439
Thanks for the tip. I must try to get up to Stirling at some point.
3981595
Medieval art is just like any other nerdy obsession. Those who are into it find it absolute fascinating comparing all the different depictions of some biblical scene or classical reference. Just as the fimfiction forums host such detailed discussion of all the different interpretations of our canon. While those outside either community just don't get it.