. Both sets of unicorn tapestries, those at the Cloisters in New York and at the Musée Cluny in Paris, were woven ca. 1500. The unicorn had been an object of fascination for encyclopedists and poets since antiquity, and in the Middle Ages it acquired more symbolic meanings as it took on christological qualities. Included in innumerable writings about fantastic creatures, such as the Physiologus, the unicorn also gained fame in romances and lyric poetry, such as the famous Auxi con l’unicorn sui by Thibaut, count of Champagne (1201–1253).
The seven Cloisters tapestries (all about 12 feet 1 inch by anywhere from 8 feet to 14 feet) feature seven scenes depicting the narrative of the hunt for the unicorn. The first tapestry shows a scout in the distance calling to huntsmen equipped with such accessories as plumed hats, spears, and dogs on leashes. The next tapestry depicts the discovery of the unicorn in a forest clearing between a fountain and a stream. The unicorn is in the process of purifying the water for the thirsty animals who wait nearby, and the huntsmen stand unabashedly around the unicorn. In the third scene, the unleashed dogs run and huntsmen thrust spears, but the unicorn leaps over the stream away from the hunters. The fourth scene features the unicorn kicking huntsmen and goring a dog. The two fragments of the fifth scene show the second and more successful method of unicorn hunting, entrapment by a maiden. In the sixth tapestry, huntsmen bring the dead unicorn in triumph back to the lord and lady of the castle. The last piece in the series shows the unicorn resurrected and peacefully captive, tied to a pomegranate tree and surrounded by a fence and a dazzling array of flowers and foliage. Despite the dense quality of the compositions, the unicorn occupies the central position in most of the scenes, and all subsidiary elements point to it.
At the Museé Cluny, the five “Lady with the Unicorn” tapestries represent five allegories of the senses. In each scene, the heraldic devices of lion and unicorn support banners of the Le Viste family and interact with the lady who stands in the center of the composition. In Sight, the lady shows the unicorn on her left its reflection in a hand-held mirror. The lady plays a portable organ decorated with lion and unicorn in Hearing, and in Taste the unicorn wears a flying cape with the Le Viste coats of arms while a maidservant offers sweetmeats to her lady. In Smell, the lady makes a bouquet of carnations, and in Touch she holds a banner in her right arm and with her left hand touches the horn of the unicorn. The last tapestry in the series, A Mon Seul Desir (a phrase that appears on the edge of the tent), consists of a lady inspecting her jewels and framed by the opening into the tent.
Both sets of tapestries have been assigned to a variety of workshops and patrons, but recent scholarship suggests that the Cloisters tapestries were made in Brussels, while the Musée Cluny tapestries were commissioned by Jean le Viste between 1484 and 1500. Reasons behind the commissioning of the tapestries remain matters for speculation, but the Musée Cluny set may have been produced in honor of a marriage or, as Erlande-Brandenburg suggests, to glorify the family name.
