''The Lady and the Unicorn'' (french: La Dame à la licorne) is the modern title given to a series of six

tapestries Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

created in the style of ("thousand flowers") and woven in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

from

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...

and

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the ...

, from designs (" cartoons") drawn in Paris around 1500. The set, on display in the

Musée de Cluny The Musée de Cluny ("Cluny Museum", ), also known as Musée national du Moyen Âge – Thermes et hôtel de Cluny ("National Museum of the Middle Ages – Cluny thermal baths and mansion"), is a museum of the Middle Ages in Paris, Fr ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, is often considered one of the greatest works of art of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

in Europe. Five of the tapestries are commonly interpreted as depicting the five

senses A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world through the detection of stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain which is part of the central nervous system rec ...

– taste, hearing, sight, smell, and touch. The sixth displays the words . The tapestry's intended meaning is obscure, but has been interpreted as representing

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...

or understanding. Each of the six tapestries depicts a noble lady with the

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

on her left and a lion on her right; some include a monkey in the scene.

History

The tapestries were rediscovered in 1841 by

Prosper Mérimée Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, and one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, and a ...

in Boussac castle (owned at the time by the subprefect of the

Creuse Creuse (; oc, Cruesa or ) is a department in central France named after the river Creuse. After Lozère, it is the second least populated department in France. It is bordered by Indre and Cher to the north, Allier and Puy-de-Dôme to the ea ...

) where they had been suffering damage from their storage conditions. In 1844, the novelist

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...

saw them and brought public attention to the tapestries in her works at the time (most notably in her novel ''Jeanne''), in which she correctly dated them to the end of the 15th century, using the ladies' costumes for reference. Nevertheless, the tapestries continued to be threatened by damp and mould until 1863, when they were bought by Edmond Du Sommerard, curator of the

in Paris, where careful conservation has restored them nearly to their former glory and where they are still on display.

Content and themes

The subject of the tapestries is complex, and scholars "now (generally) agree that they present a meditation on earthly pleasures and courtly culture, offered through an allegory of the senses." The pennants, as well as the armor of the unicorn and lion in the tapestry appears to bear the arms of Jean IV Le Viste, a powerful nobleman in the court of Charles VII of France and presumably its sponsor. The arms, however, appear to break the rules of French heraldry with an incorrect superposition of colors. A very recent study of the heraldry appears to lend credence to another hypothesis - previously dismissed - that the real sponsor of the tapestry was Antoine II Le Viste (1470–1534), a descendant of the younger branch of the Le Viste family and an important figure at the court of Charles VIII,

Louis XII Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves, he succeeded his 2nd cousin once removed and brother in law at the tim ...

and

François I Francis I (french: François Ier; frm, Francoys; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once ...

Touch

The 'Touch' tapestry displays a noble lady standing with one hand touching the horn of a unicorn, and the other holding up a pennant. A lion sits to the side and looks on.

Taste

In the 'Taste' tapestry, the lady takes sweets from a dish held by a maidservant. Her eyes are on a parakeet on her upheld left hand. The lion and the unicorn are both standing on their hind legs, reaching up to pennants that frame the lady on either side. The monkey is at her feet, eating one of the sweetmeats.

Smell

In the 'Smell' tapestry, the lady stands, making a wreath of flowers. Her maidservant holds a basket of flowers within her easy reach. Again, the lion and unicorn frame the lady while holding on to the pennants. The monkey has stolen a flower which he is smelling, providing the key to the allegory.

Hearing

In the 'Hearing' tapestry, the lady plays a

portative organ A portative organ (from the Latin verb , "to carry"), also known during Italian Trecento as the , is a small pipe organ that consists of one rank of flue pipes, sometimes arranged in two rows, to be played while strapped to the performer at a ri ...

on top of a table covered with an

Oriental rug An oriental rug is a heavy textile made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purposes and produced in " Oriental countries" for home use, local sale, and export. Oriental carpets can be pile woven or flat woven without pile, using v ...

. Her maidservant stands to the opposite side and operates the bellows. The lion and unicorn once again frame the scene holding up the pennants. Just as on all the other tapestries, the unicorn is to the lady's left and the lion to her right.

Sight

In the 'Sight' tapestry, the lady is seated, holding a mirror up in her right hand. The unicorn kneels on the ground, with his front legs in the lady's lap, from which he gazes at his reflection in the mirror. The lion on the left holds up a pennant.

The sixth tapestry is wider than the others, and has a somewhat different style. The lady stands in front of a tent, across the top of which is inscribed her

motto A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. Mot ...

, , one of the deliberately obscure and elegant mottos, typically alluding to courtly love, adopted by the nobility during the age of chivalry. It is variously interpreted as "to my only/sole desire", "according to my desire alone"; "by my will alone", "love desires only beauty of soul", and "to calm passion". These frequently appear on artworks and illuminated miniatures. Her maidservant stands to the right, holding open a chest. The lady is placing the necklace she wears in the other tapestries into the chest. To her left is a low bench with a dog, possibly a Maltese, sitting on a decorative pillow. It is the only tapestry in which she is seen to smile. The unicorn and the lion stand in their normal spots framing the lady while holding onto the pennants. This tapestry has elicited a number of interpretations.Cavallo, Adolfo Salvatore. The Unicorn Tapestries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York:Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998. pp. 99-100. Print. One interpretation sees the lady putting the necklace into the chest as a renunciation of the passions aroused by the other senses, and as an assertion of her free will. Another sees the tapestry as representing a sixth sense of understanding (derived from the sermons of

Jean Gerson Jean Charlier de Gerson (13 December 1363 – 12 July 1429) was a French scholar, educator, reformer, and poet, Chancellor of the University of Paris, a guiding light of the conciliar movement and one of the most prominent theologians at the Co ...

of the University of Paris, ). Various other interpretations see the tapestry as representing love or virginity. It is also debated whether the lady in is picking up or setting aside the necklace. In the first five tapestries, one or more of the animals are shown using the represented sense along with the woman. In ''Touch'', the unicorn can presumably feel the lady's hand touching its horn; in ''Taste'', a monkey is eating a sweetmeat; in ''Smell'', the monkey is sniffing a flower; in ''Hearing'', the animals presumably all hear the music; and in ''Sight'', the unicorn is gazing at itself in a mirror. In the final tapestry, only the women engage with the necklace. The blue tent in the last tapestry also serves to separate the human figures from the natural world, including the mythical unicorn, and is not present in any of the previous tapestries.

Gallery

(Toulouse) L'Ouïe (La Dame à la licorne) - Musée de Cluny Paris.jpg, ''Hearing'', (Toulouse) Le Vue (La Dame à la licorne) - Musée de Cluny Paris.jpg, ''Sight'', The_Lady and the unicorn Desire.jpg, , Edmond du Sommerard photograph BNF Gallica.jpg, Edmond du Sommerard, curator of the

, who bought the tapestries

Popular culture

* All six tapestries are used to cover the bare stone walls in the

Gryffindor Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry () is a fictional Scottish boarding school of magic for students aged eleven to eighteen, and is the primary setting for the first six books in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series and serves as a ma ...

common room as seen in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. * The sixth tapestry, , is prominently featured in the ''

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn is a novel by popular Japanese author Harutoshi Fukui (''Shūsen no Lorelei'', ''Bōkoku no Aegis'', '' Samurai Commando: Mission 1549''). The novel takes place in Gundam's Universal Century timeline. Character and mechanical designs ar ...

'' OVA and the ''Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096'' TV anime series. * The cover art for the '' UnChild'' music album from 2014 by Sawano Hiroyuki and

Aimer is a Japanese pop singer and lyricist signed to SACRA MUSIC and managed by agehasprings. Her name comes from the verb "Aimer" in French, which means "to love". Aimer uses the name aimerrhythm for lyrics credits. Debuted in 2011, she has relea ...

, which features songs from the aforementioned OVA, is based on the tapestry, replacing the lion with a black and gold unicorn, mirroring the white unicorn. * A fictional account of the creation of the tapestries is described in the novel "The Lady and the Unicorn" (2003) , by

Tracy Chevalier Tracy Rose Chevalier (born 19 October 1962) is an American-British novelist. She is best known for her second novel, '' Girl with a Pearl Earring'', which was adapted as a 2003 film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth. Personal backgr ...

. * The tapestries are featured in the 2017 British drama film ''The Escape''. * The tapestries are also described in ''The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge'' by Rainer Maria Rilke. * Peter Grudzien's album "The Unicorn" uses snippets of the tapestries for its album artwork

Notes

References

Bibliography

Jean-Patrice Boudet, La Dame à la licorne et ses sources médiévales d'inspiration

External links

Musée du Moyen Age photos and discussions of the six tapestries. (Retrieved from the Internet Archive's copy on 25 February 2014) * De Vitis, Mark (2006).
Explainer: the symbolism of The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry cycle
, ''The Conversation''. * Mary Tudor - Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, the mysterious Lady of ''The Lady and the Unicorn'' ? http://dame-licorne.pagesperso-orange.fr/

''Mary Tudor Brandon, Queen of France, in Cluny''
The symbolism and meaning of the tapestries
''by Yuki Fukazawa, 2020'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Lady and the Unicorn, The Tapestries 1490s works Unicorns Gothic art Lions in art Monkeys in art