The Lady and the Unicorn

The Lady and the Unicorn (French: La Dame à la licorne) is the modern title given to a series of six tapestries created in the style of mille-fleurs ("thousand flowers") and woven in Flanders from wool and silk, from designs ("cartoons") drawn in Paris around 1500.

The famous tapestries were rediscovered in 1841 by Prosper Mérimée at Boussac Castle, then owned by the subprefect of the Creuse.

In 1844, the novelist George Sand encountered the tapestries and brought them to public attention, notably through her novel Jeanne, in which she accurately dated them to the late 15th century by analyzing the ladies' costumes.

Despite growing interest, the tapestries remained at risk until 1882, when Edmond Du Sommerard, curator of the Musée de Cluny in Paris, purchased them.

The subject of the tapestries is complex, and scholars "now (generally) agree that they present a meditation on earthly pleasures and courtly culture, offered through an allegory of the senses.

"[2] The pennants, as well as the armor of the unicorn and lion in the tapestry appear to bear the arms of Antoine II or Jean IV Le Viste, Baron of Montreuil, a powerful nobleman in the court of Charles VII of France and presumably its sponsor.

A very recent study of the heraldry appears to lend credence to another hypothesis (previously dismissed) that the real sponsor of the tapestry was Antoine II Le Viste (1470–1534), a descendant of the younger branch of the Le Viste family and an important figure at the court of Charles VIII, Louis XII and François I.

[a] The 'Touch' tapestry displays a noble lady standing with one hand touching the horn of a unicorn, and the other holding up a pennant.

[4] One interpretation sees the lady putting the necklace into the chest as a renunciation of the passions aroused by the other senses, and as an assertion of her free will.

Another sees the tapestry as representing a sixth sense of understanding (derived from the sermons of Jean Gerson of the University of Paris, c. 1420).