The Lady and the Unicorn

wonder | wander | women don't often speak of going on a pilgrimage. Many of our family have been on the Camino di Santiago, and in 2001 we celebrated the Maha Kumbh Mela with our community in India. A trip to a museum doesn't seem comparable at first, but in the days of modern travel more people embark on a cultural pilgrimage, to see Charles Dickens' house or Karl Marx's grave or the Museé du Louvre.

A pilgrimage, according to the book Pilgrimage in Popular Culture, is a journey to a place where the visitor undergoes a personal transformation. Back in 2004 wonder | wander | women visited the Museé de Cluny in Paris for the first time, to see the tapestries of The Lady and the Unicorn. We had read about the famous tapestries since childhood; as it turned out, seeing them really was life-changing.

Sight, c.1500s

These tapestries are some of the finest of their kind and are believed to be made by the same artist's workshop as the tapestries of The Hunt of the Unicorn that hang in New York City's Met Cloisters. We've written about the Cloisters before, and about the recreated Hunt of the Unicorn series that hangs in Scotland's Stirling Castle.

Taste, c. 1500s

The artist behind these masterworks, not to mention the artisans who actually wove the tapestries, remain a mystery. This artist (or group of artists) is only known as the "Master of the Tres Petites Heures of Anne de Bretagne", after the illuminated book of hours owned by the Breton queen. This artist has also been connected to several stained glass windows in prominent French churches, as well as other tapestries like the Illustrious Women series in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Hunt of the Unicorn.

Touch, c.1500s

Each tapestry illustrates one of the five senses, plus one especially large and enigmatic hanging, A Mon Seul Désir. Art historians and medievalists have speculated that this tapestry symbolises many different things, from the virtue of free will, to the tradition of courtly love, to possibly a lady of the Le Viste family, whose emblems of three crescent moons are all over the tapestries.

A mon seul désir, c.1500s

These masterpieces are incredibly detailed, with beautifully observed and naturalistic designs. This style is called millefleur - "thousand flowers". The trees, flowers and animals are assembled from patterns drawn by the master artist and woven into the design, creating the look of a flowery meadow and a pleasing unity to the whole series. 

Hearing, c.1500s

We left the museum feeling soothed and light of heart. After so many years we were finally able to see these beautiful works again. They had survived centuries of deterioration in a country chateâu, several restorations, many wars and the scrutiny of many tourists and scholars. Still there they were, as gorgeous and mysterious as ever, anticipating many more years...and hopefully, further discoveries about their meaning and the skilled but unknown hands that wove them.

Smell, c.1500s