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Mono-print of a composition of shoes, collaged with watercolours and various papers from AS module on Collections
Musee de Cluny, Paris
"TAPESTRIES OF THE LADY WITH THE UNICORN
The Touch, the Taste, the Smell, the Hearing and the Sight... and a sixth piece, with a blue tent and the inscription my only desire: immediately recognisable, the tapestries that form the hanging of the Lady with the Unicorn are among the most famous works in the collections of the Cluny Museum.
The red background and the same composition diagram unite the six tapestries. On a large blue oval, the Lady, elegant, adorned with jewellery and often assisted by a young lady, stands solemnly, between a lion and a unicorn carrying banners, capes or shields with three croissants. This group is framed by trees of four species: oaks, orange trees, pines and holly. The soil of the six "islands" is planted with flowers, and the red backgrounds are dotted with flowering plants and animals: white rabbits, fox cubs, a lion cub, lambs, birds... but also monkeys or a panther...
The coat of arms, from gueules (red) to the strip of azure (blue) loaded with three silver crescents (white) made it possible to identify the family that had these pieces woven: the Le Viste, originally from Lyon, but owning land in Burgundy and Parisian residences. The identity of the sponsor remains the subject of debate: it would be either Jean IV Le Viste, who died in 1500, or his nephew Antoine, who died in 1532, two figures from the time of the kings of France Charles VIII and Louis XII, endowed with offices in the high administration of the time.
The models of women and animals on a large scale were drawn by the painter Jean d'Ypres. Active in Paris from 1489 to 1508, he is known as an illuminator in the service of Queen Anne of Brittany and as an author of models for stained glass windows or for engravings illustrating printed books. The plants and animals were able to be woven from models held in the workshops of the liciers. The weaving is very neat, even virtuoso, but the place of production of the tapestries is not known. They can come from the looms located in the southern Netherlands, in cities like Brussels or Tournai, but they could just as well be the work of Parisian liciers.
A sense of peace and harmony emerges from the six tapestries. There are few objects and accessories, while clothing and jewellery are carefully described. Plants and animals are represented everywhere, sometimes stylised, sometimes inspired by direct observation.
The hanging has been understood in various ways, especially according to the interpretation that can be made of the sixth piece. How to understand the inscription, with two initials, A and I framing the expression my only desire? Maybe the first names of Antoine Le Viste and his wife Jacqueline? Does the Lady take or put a necklace in the box handed by the lady? Is it an allegory of the senses and a sixth sense, close to the soul and the heart? Can we make a courteous reading of these tapestries, since the Lady is in a garden where many plants and animals allude to the love quest? Is my only desire a motto? What meaning to give to the word desire, in a world that is still deeply Christian, but on the threshold of the Renaissance?"
Height: 311 to 377 cm
Width: 290 to 473 cm
Place of production: Paris (production of cartons)
Periods: 4th quarter of the 15th century; 1st quarter of the 16th century
Technique: tapestry