Unicorn Tapestries ~ The Lady and the Unicorn

The Lady and the Unicorn (French: La Dame à la licorne) is the modern title given to a series of six tapestries woven in Flanders from wool and silk, from designs ("cartoons") drawn in Paris around 1500. The set, on display in the Musée national du Moyen Âge (former Musée de Cluny) in Paris, is often considered one of the greatest works of art of the Middle Ages in Europe.

Five of the tapestries are commonly interpreted as depicting the five senses – taste, hearing, sight, smell, and touch. The sixth displays the words "À mon seul désir". The tapestry's meaning is obscure but has been interpreted as representing love or understanding. Each of the six tapestries depicts a noble lady with the unicorn on her left and a lion on her right; some include a monkey in the scene. The pennants, as well as the armour of the Unicorn and Lion in the tapestry, bear the arms of the sponsor, Jean Le Viste, a powerful nobleman in the court of King Charles VII. However, a very recent study of the heraldry appears to lend credence to another hypothesis - previously dismissed - that the real sponsor of the tapestry is 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 and François I.

The tapestries are created in the style of millefleurs (meaning: "thousand flowers").

The tapestries were rediscovered in 1841 by Prosper Mérimée in Boussac castle (owned at the time by the subprefect of the Creuse) where they had been suffering damage from their storage conditions. In 1844 the novelist George Sand 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 fifteenth century, using the ladies' costumes for reference. Nevertheless, the artefacts continued to be threatened by damp and mould until 1863, when they were brought to the Thermes du Cluny in Paris. Careful conservation has restored them nearly to their former glory. They are presently on display in the Musée de Cluny (Musée du Moyen-Âge), Paris.

More HERE

The tapestries

Touch

The lady stands with one hand touching the unicorn's horn, and the other holding up the pennant. The lion sits to the side and looks on.

Taste

The lady is taking 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

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 onto the pennants. The monkey has stolen a flower which he is smelling, providing the key to the allegory.

Hearing

The lady plays a portative organ on top of a table covered with an Oriental rug. 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 - a common denominator to all the tapestries.

Sight

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.

À Mon Seul Désir

This 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 written "À Mon Seul Désir", an obscure motto, variously interpretable as "my one/sole desire", "according to my desire alone"; "by my will alone", "love desires only beauty of soul", "to calm passion". 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 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. 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 of the University of Paris, c. 1420). Various other interpretations see the tapestry as representing love or virginity. It is also debated whether the lady in "À Mon Seul Désir" is picking up or setting aside the necklace.

In The Lady with the Unicorn tapestry series, it is generally accepted that the first five tapestries represent the five senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. The interpretation of the sixth tapestry, “À Mon Seul Désir,” remains uncertain.

A new proposal suggests that the French words, “à mon seul désir,” translate to “with my unique desire,” meaning that people are the only species that covet material objects even as we share the five senses with animals. The tapestries appear to be arranged to show that while we share the five senses, we are unique in our want of valuable possessions. In the scenario depicted in the last tapestry, it is unclear whether the lady is taking her necklace from the box held by her maid or putting it away, but that distinction doesn’t matter. The point is that she treasures the golden necklace.

In the first five tapestries, one or more of the animals are shown utilising the represented sense along with the women. In “Sight,” the unicorn is gazing at itself in a mirror held by the lady. Presumably, all of the animals can hear the music being played by the women in the “Hearing” tapestry. In “Taste,” a monkey is eating a sweetmeat as the lady takes a sweet from a bowl held by her maid, and in “Smell,” the monkey is sniffing a flower as the lady assembles a flower wreath. The “Touch” tapestry features the lady’s hand touching the unicorn’s horn. In the final tapestry, only the two women are engaged in handling the necklace, while some of the animals seem to watch from afar. The blue tent in the last tapestry also serves to separate the human figures from the natural world, which includes the unicorn with its mythical qualities. The tent frames the lady handling her necklace with a strip of cloth and her maid and is not present in any of the previous tapestries. In all of the tapestries except “Smell,” a falcon, sometimes wearing jesses, is hunting another bird. In the sixth tapestry, this occurs above and outside of the tent and may represent hunting as another trait proclivity shared between people and animals.

The interpretation of people alone valuing material objects ties the individual representations of the six tapestries together and allows them to flow towards the realization that, while people may live alongside the natural and mythical worlds (which, in medieval times, were likely considered the same), they remain separate and not completely in either due to their unique desires.

Word from Trace ~
I'm so happy, I purchased the 'Smell' tapestry of 'The Lady and the Unicorn'. It's already started to fire up ideas for another story, especially as I came across a novel with the same title - The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier, which I've just purchased from Ebay, yay! The blurb sounded interesting, given below.

A set of bewitching medieval tapestries hangs today in a protected chamber in Paris. They appear to portray a woman's seduction of a unicorn, but the story behind their making is unknown - until now.
Paris, 1490. A shrewd French nobleman commissions six lavish tapestries celebrating his rising status at Court. He hires the charismatic, arrogant, sublimely talented Nicolas des Innocents to design them. Nicolas creates havoc among the women in the house - mother and daughter, servant and lady-in-waiting - before taking his designs north to the Brussels workshop where the tapestries are to be woven.
There, master weaver Georges de la Chapelle risks everything he has on finishing the tapestries - his finest, most intricate work - on time for his exacting French client. Ill-prepared for temptation and seduction, he and his family are consumed by the project and by their dealings with the hot-blooded painter from Paris.
The results change all their lives - lives that have been captured in the tapestries, for those who know where to look.

The cover is beautiful, can't wait to read. :o) At present, I'm reading 'Sophia's Secret' by Susanna Kearsley. I really enjoyed the first novel I read of hers a short while ago called, The Rose Garden. A quote from the book ~

“Ever try to hold a butterfly? It can't be done. You damage them," he said. 'As gentle as you try to be, you take the powder from their wings and they won't ever fly the same. It's kinder to let them go.”

I love the idea of creating your own version of an old tale, especially as in this case, with the story behind the tapestries being unknown. I have exciting mental images waiting to be transformed into words. So another very brief outline for a new book will be completed later today.
My novels in the series so far:

1. A Carpet of Purple Flowers (present) - Published by Urbane Publications (Oct' 2015)
2. Awake in Purple Dreams (present) - First Draft complete (editing in progress - Oct' 2016)
3. The Purple Book of Menteith (past) - Outlined story and all chapters (ready to write)
4. Shining Sword Claíomh Solais (future) - Very brief outline of the story and visual boards - NanoWrimo Nov' 2016?
5. The Butterfly Bridge (prequel) - Brief outline of the story and visual boards. Old handwritten pieces and partial script (screen) from years ago. 

My hope is that next year, 2017, that books two (Bea's story concluded) and four (continues the future tale) will be published. Exciting to get this far and still feel the magic of this epic tale.

Stand-a-alone novels (not in the series) Novel Page on Website HERE

6. Dandelion Wind - Visual Boards and a brief outline of story - Genre: Contemporary Romance

7. Women of the Sea (MZ) - Idea stage with visual boards - Genre: Folklore Fantasy

8. *NEW* Amour Désir (Love Longed For) - Idea stage (thanks to vague tapestry history) - Genre: Fantasy Romance

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo

Unicorn Tapestries - Stirling Castle

The Stirling Tapestries

The Unicorn Defends Itself

The Hunt of the Unicorn, or the Unicorn Tapestries, is a series of seven tapestries dating from between 1495 and 1505, now in The Cloisters in New York, probably woven in Brussels or Liège. The tapestries show a group of noblemen and hunters in pursuit of a unicorn. The Hunt for the Unicorn was a common theme in late medieval and renaissance works of art and literature. The tapestries were woven in wool, metallic threads, and silk. The vibrant colours, still evident today, were produced from dye plants: weld (yellow), madder (red), and woad (blue). One of the panels, The Mystic Capture of the Unicorn, only survives in two fragments.

The tapestries are subject to scholarly debate about the iconography, the artists who designed the tapestries, and questions surrounding the sequence in which they were meant to be hung. Possibly the seven tapestries were not originally hung together.

The Unicorn is Found

It was posited by James J. Rorimer in 1942 that they were commissioned by Anne of Brittany, to celebrate her marriage to Louis XII, King of France on 6 December 1491. The clue derived from the occurrence of A and reversed E tied with a cord in a bowknot throughout the series of tapestries. As Rorimer surmised, the letters A and E are interpreted as the first and the last letters of Anne's name cited the elisions in the medieval age. However, Margaret B. Freeman refutes this fairly convincingly in her monograph of 1976, a conclusion which is supported by Adolph S. Cavallo in his 1998 work.

Fragment of "The Mystic Capture of the Unicorn"

The tapestries show pagan and Christian symbolism. The pagan themes emphasise the medieval lore of beguiled lovers, whereas Christian writings interpret the unicorn and its death as the Passion of Christ. The unicorn has long been identified as a symbol of Christ by Christian writers, allowing the traditionally pagan symbolism of the unicorn to become acceptable within religious doctrine. The original pagan myths about The Hunt of the Unicorn refer to an animal with a single horn that can only be tamed by a virgin; Christian scholars translated this into an allegory for Christ's relationship with the Virgin Mary.

The Unicorn is Killed and Brought to the Castle

In the Gothic tapestry, the makers looked on biblical events as history and linked the biblical and secular narrative in the tapestry weaving. When the morality was attached importance to the medieval art, the tapestries illustrate the moralising role of narratives in allegories. The secular unicorn hunt was not only a depiction of Christian art but also transformed into an allegorical representation of the Annunciation. Another theory states that the tapestries intended to depict both the secular concerns and Christian virtue, the pursuit and taming of the unicorn not only used as religious Incarnation but also in conjunction with the secular meaning.

With a regulatory attitude to Rorimer's speculation of tapestry ownership, Margaret B.Freeman did not negate the possible function of the tapestries as an interpretation of allegory of true love. The taming of the unicorn symbolises the lover or mate who enchained by virgin and entrapped in the fence (in the tapestry The Unicorn in Captivity) under the notion of secularity. Freeman discovered the connection between the taming of the unicorn and the devotion and subjection in love in the medieval poets. In addition, the author pointed out that the overlap of the subject the God of Heaven and the God of love were compatible in the notion of late middle age.

The original workmanship of the tapestries still remains unanswered at the present. The design of the tapestries in the effect of the richness of figurative elements, near to the art of oil painting and influenced by the French style and reflected the woodcuts and metal cuts printed in Paris in the late fifteenth century.

The Unicorn is Attacked

The tapestries were rich in floral in the background as a garden, features the "millefleurs" style, refers to a background style of a variety of small botanic, which was invented by the weavers of Gothic age, popular during the late medieval and wilted after the early Renaissance. There are more than a hundred of plants represented in the tapestries, which scatter across the green background on the panels, eighty-five of which are identified by botanists whose interior meaning in the tapestries were designed to recall the tapestries' major themes. In the unicorn series, the hunt takes place within a closed garden, the Hortus conclusus take the literal meaning of "enclosed garden", which was not only in conjunction with the Annunciation, but also a representation of the garden in the secular world.

"The Unicorn is in Captivity and No Longer Dead"

The tapestries were highly probably woven in Brussels in the Flanders, where was the centre of tapestry industry in the medieval European. As a series of remarkable works of Brussels looms, the mixture of silk, metallic thread with wool gave the tapestries finer quality and brilliance of colours. The wool was widely produced in the rural areas in Brussels and easily obtained as the primary material in tapestry weaving, while the silk was costly in the weaving of tapestry, which symbolised the wealth and social status of the tapestry owner.

Fragment of The Mystic Capture of the Unicorn

The seven tapestries are:

The Start of the Hunt
The Unicorn at the Fountain
The Unicorn Attacked
The Unicorn Defending Himself
The Unicorn is captured by the Virgin (two fragments)
The Unicorn Killed and Brought to the Castle
The Unicorn in Captivity

From the collection of Morgan and Rochefoucauld, the tapestries were composed of five large pieces, one small piece and two fragments.

Other sources give slightly different titles and different sequences. The factors that affect this are primarily threefold. Firstly the nature of the tapestries themselves, which exhibit differences in manufacture and size, suggesting that the first and last may be independent works or from a different series. Secondly, the nature of the classic stag hunt usually cited to Livre de la Chasse by Gaston III, Count of Foix of Foix. Thirdly the established story of the unicorn hunt, where the unicorn is made docile by a virgin, and then captured, wounded or killed. In addition, the symbolism of the story needs to be taken into account.

The Hunters Enter the Woods

Provenance

When the pictorial work serves as the core of Gothic tapestries, the "heraldic" was made up a decorative mark of ownership as well as form the subject of the tapestries. The propitious occurrence of monogram in the background which striking or inconspicuous, parallel with the animal, flora or decorative elements in the tapestry. A cypher constituted by the sewed letters F and R in the tapestry The Unicorn Attacked, which were associated with the La Rochefoucauld family, who was believed the original owner of the tapestries.

The tapestries were owned by the La Rochefoucauld family of France for several centuries, with the first mention of them showing up in the family's 1728 inventory. At that time five of the tapestries were hanging in a bedroom in the family's Château de Verteuil, Charente and two were stored in a hall adjacent to the chapel. The tapestries were highly believed woven for François, the son of Jean II de La Rochefoucauld and Marguerite de Barbezieux. And there was a possible connection between the letters A and E and the La Rochefoucauld, which are interpreted as the first and last of Antoine's name, who was the son of François, and his wife, Antoinette of Amboise.

During the French Revolution, the tapestries were looted from the château and reportedly were used to cover potatoes – a period during which they apparently sustained damage. By the end of the 1880s, they were again in the possession of the family. A visitor to the château described them as quaint 15th-century wall hangings, yet showing "incomparable freshness and grace". The same visitor records the set as consisting of seven pieces, though one was by that time in fragments and being used as bed curtains.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. bought them in 1922 for about one million US dollars. Six of the tapestries hung in Rockefeller's house until The Cloisters was built when he donated them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1938 and at the same time secured for the collection the two fragments the La Rochefauld family had retained. The set now hangs in The Cloisters which houses the museum's medieval collection.

Recreation

Historic Scotland commissioned a set of seven hand-made tapestries for Stirling Castle, a recreation of The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries, as part of a project to furnish the castle as it was in the 16th century. It was part-funded by the Quinque Foundation of the United States.

All seven currently hang in the Queen Mary of Guise's Inner Hall in the Royal Palace at Stirling Castle.

The tapestry project was managed by West Dean College in West Sussex and work began in January 2002. The weavers worked in two teams, one based at the college, the other in a purpose-built studio in the Nether Bailey of Stirling Castle. The first three tapestries were completed in Chichester, the remainder at Stirling Castle.

Historians studying the reign of James IV believe that a similar series of "Unicorn" tapestries were part of the Scottish Royal tapestry collection. The team at West Dean Tapestry visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art to inspect the originals and researched the medieval techniques, the colour palette and materials. Traditional techniques and materials were used with mercerised cotton taking the place of silk to preserve its colour better. The wool was specially dyed at West Dean College.

Source HERE

Read more HERE
James V’s lost tapestries recreated at Stirling Castle - HERE
The team behind the project searched the castle’s inventories of James’s possessions and found that the Scottish king owned more than 100 tapestries. One set of tapestries the team was particularly keen to track down was called ‘the historie of the unicorne’. After extensive research, the team found the set of seven Flemish tapestries from the 15th century in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Peter Buchanan, project manager for Historic Scotland, said: “Whilst we may never know what happened to the original tapestries, the fact that we now have these fantastic recreations, with the assistance of the Met in New York and through the generosity of our donors, will provide visitors to the castle now and for generations to come with a real insight into how the palace may have been at the time of James V.”

This is not the first project undertaken to recreate aspects of Stirling Castle. In 2011 Historic Scotland completed a £12 million project to reconstruct the oak medallions that decorated the ceilings of the castle during James V’s reign.