The Lady and the Unicorn

The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries that inspired Tracy Chevalier''s novel of the same name are quite real. Beautiful, large, intricate, and expertly made, all six of them hang today in the Museum of the Middle Ages (aka the Cluny Museum) in Paris, bewitching art experts and enthusiasts alike for centuries with their splendor and dual mysteries. The first mystery involves the identity of who commissioned the tapestries. While the coat of arms featured on each of the tapestries is that of the Le Vistes, a bourgeois family from Lyon who became members of the French court by virtue of their wealth, it has never been resolved which Le Viste they refer to. Most historians believe it to be Jean IV, a president of the Cour des Aides and renowned art patron who died in 1500, although others suggest that it was Jean TV''s cousin Aubert (advisor to the Parliament) or Aubert''s son, Antoine, who was president of the Parliament in 1523. Further advancing the Le Viste connection to the tapestries is the unicorn depicted in them. In old French, "viste means "fast," and the unicorn is recognized as a symbol of speed. The second, and far more complex, mystery regards the meaning of the tapestries. In each tapestry, an elegant lady and a unicorn stand or sit on a blue island of grass surrounded by a rich red background. For the last eighty years or so, it has been recognized that five of the tapestries depict the five senses--the lady shows the unicorn its reflection in a mirror (sight), the lady plays an organ (hearing), the lady lays her hand on the horn of the unicorn (touch), the lady weaves a crown of carnations while a monkey sniffs one (smell), and the lady accepts a candy offered to her byservant--as does a monkey (taste). The riddle of the sixth tapestry is not so readily deciphered. In it, the lady is placing the necklace she had worn in the previous five tapestries into a jewel case as she stands in front of a grand pavilion, with a lion and the unicorn holding the flaps of the entrance open. Emblazoned above the entrance in gold is the phrase "A mon seul desir ("To my one desire"). Some interpret this tapestry as a renunciation of the five senses; some argue that it shows that love is the sixth sense, while still others say that depicts the power of the intellect as the sixth sense. Regardless of how they interpret their meaning, those who have viewed the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries are united in their belief of the beauty, majesty, power, and drama the tapestries convey.