Perched atop a hill at the northern tip of Manhattan, The Met Cloisters is a museum jewel box filled with treasures of medieval European art. One of his most iconic works is the “Unicorn Tapestries”. These tapestries depict both a sacred and secular narrative in a series of seven tapestries, and are beloved for their beauty and craftsmanship, as well as the mystery surrounding their creation and ownership.
The tapestries, probably designed in Paris and woven in Brussels, date from 1495-1505. An initial examination of its scenes reveals a clear and gripping narrative of hunters employing hounds and greyhounds to capture a unicorn. The mythical unicorn was considered a real animal with powerful healing properties.
Foliage and Tissues
Authors Peter Barnet and Nancy Wu in “The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture,” explain how the narrative of the tapestries is enacted in woven woolen threads highlighted with metallic threads. The rich colors of the medium were dyed from plants: weld (which creates yellow), wackier (red), and woad (blue).
Kassia St. Clair, in her book “The Secret Lives of Color”, mentions that another use of blond was as a dye for medieval wedding garments. Woad, ideal for dyeing absorbent wool fibers, was a reliable dye for creating a colorfast blue hue. However, St. Clair explains that when it was mixed with less stable elements, as was done to make green dye, those other components could fade over time. This is why it is common for the foliage depicted in the tapestries to now appear blue.
Examples of these same plants can be seen in the museum’s own Bonnefont Cloister Herb Garden. Barnet and Wu state that there are 101 different plant species represented in the tapestry cycle, and 84 have been identified, including sage, marigold, rose, holly, cherry, pomegranate, date palm, orange, orchid, bistorch, iris. , the thistle of Santa Maria and the lily of Madonna. The exquisite craftsmanship of the tapestries, evidenced by this realistic depiction of botanical elements, is further appreciated when one examines the sumptuous fabrics, including brocade, velvet, leather, and furs, depicted in the fashion of the figures. These aspects help to date the tapestries.
Religious Interpretations
Medieval art is often full of simultaneous references to what at the time was considered acceptable coexisting symbolism. Thus, a deeper exploration of the iconography of the “Unicorn Tapestries” reveals both religious and love interpretations. Barnet and Wu theorize that the unicorn represents Christ and the narrative scenes of the hunt parallel the Passion of Christ. In the tapestry “The unicorn purifies the water”, the 12 hunters could symbolize the apostles and the rose bush behind the unicorn could represent the martyrdom of Christ.
In the “Hunters Return to the Castle” tapestry, there is an intriguing double narrative depicting two stages in the killing of the unicorn. In the first, the great holly above his head can be seen as an allegory for Christ’s death on the cross. The later scene, equally rich in religious symbolism, includes a reference to the Crown of Thorns; the unicorn’s horn has been cut off and is shown entangled in thorny oak branches. His body is presented to the lord and lady of a castle and her attendants. This grouping could be an allusion to the Deposition, with the lady holding a rosary as the Virgin Mary, her lord as John the Baptist, and the others as Holy Women in distress.
Watching “The Unicorn Rests in a Garden,” striking with its exuberant background of a thousand flowers, one can read the scene as a representation of Christ’s resurrection: the previously slain unicorn has come back to life. In fact, some of the plants represented in this tapestry refer to the Virgin Mary and the Passion of Christ. There is a hint of blood on the unicorn’s body, a reference to the brutal injuries he received. Closer examination of the drops reveals that it is a mixture of pomegranate juice and seeds. Pomegranates during the Middle Ages could symbolize Christ, and in fact, a pomegranate tree is growing on top of the unicorn.
medieval procession
An equally viable interpretation of the “Unicorn Tapestries” is a secular one, where hunting symbolizes courtship and the unicorn represents a groom. In “The Unicorn Rests in a Garden”, the unicorn can be understood as a man trapped in marriage. Likewise, the pomegranates brimming with seed and juice are a symbol of fertility, along with other plants in the tapestry. This suggests that the tapestries may have been made to commemorate a marriage.
Art historians once believed that they were woven to celebrate the marriage of Anne of Brittany and King Louis XII of France, although this is now considered less plausible. Scholars also wonder if the “AE” code on the tapestries represents Adam and Eve or some kind of motto.
mysterious origins
The original owner of the “Unicorn Tapestries” remains unidentified. The oldest written record of the tapestries, dated 1680, reveals that they were hung in the Parisian residence of Francis VI, Duke of La Rochefoucauld. The tapestries are mentioned again almost 50 years later in an inventory by a descendant, which indicates his residence in the family castle at Verteuil. In 1790, at the beginning of the French Revolution, the nobility in France was abolished and the art of these families was made available to the people.
The tapestries were removed from the castle during the Reign of Terror, and one account states that they were used to cover a peasant’s potatoes to prevent them from freezing. In the mid-19th century, the La Rochefoucauld family recovered their lost “Unicorn Tapestries” from a peasant family and reinstalled them in their castle. In 1923, they were sold to John D. Rockefeller Jr., who later gifted them to the Museum, their current safe haven.
A profound example of artistic achievement, complex symbolism and fascinating history, the “Unicorn Tapestries” weave an enduring spell that continues to delight and inspire viewers today.