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Tapestry of the lady to the unicorn (Paris)
In
an island blue-night, flanked of four different gasolines of trees
(pine, oak, orange tree and houx), one distinguishes the slim
silhouette from an elegant young woman…
The tapestry representing the Lady with the Unicorn belongs to a series of six, whose history is long and animated.
In
1882, the museum of Cluny buys at the town of Boussac, in the center of
France, a batch of objects of medieval origin, of which these mural
tapestries. The conservative of the museum estimated at the time they
were French tapestries left a travelling workshop, which worked in the
countries of the Loire.
At the time of their creation, in XVth
century, one distinguished the “tapestries with hystoires” and the
“greenery”. The Lady with the Unicorn belonged to these last, also
called “thousand-flowers”.
In
1965 and 1966, international experts examined them, and this thesis was
rejected. Since, one inclines to think that they are originating in
Brussels, as testifies their high degree to it to perfection and the
complex technique which they reveal. Moreover, the characters and the
animals which appear in it point out the powerful style of an excellent
painter, probably Hans Memling, one of the great painters of Brussels
of XVth century.
The presence of this animal in the British weapons contributed to mistakes in interpretation of this series of tapestries.
On
the tapestry, most represented, the unicorn contemplates its image in
the mirror which the lady tightens to him, in the center of the
composition. On the right, a lion is which holds between its forefeet a
pole, whose banner carries a blazon “of mouths to the band of azure
charged with three money crescents”.
On this subject, of many
experts wondered about the significance of this standard. Some
suggested that these tapestries could be ordered by prince Djem, wire
unfortunate of Mahomet II, the conqueror of Constantinople. The ideal
of this prince, a long time captive in the Hollow one consisted in
joining together the Cross and the Crescent.
Finally
Edmond of Sommerard, named preserving of the museum of Cluny in 1842,
found the solution of this enigma. They were the weapons as of Viste,
important family of lawyers established in Lyon, and whose several
members occupied of the places in sight at the court of Burgundy. The
blazon of this family beside a lion, emblem of the nobility, should not
astonish us: indeed, a young lady Viste married a gentleman whose
nobility was of sword. These emblems represent the union of the two
families. These tapestries concealed introduced later by downward of
this union from the castle of Boussac, of which it had married the
lord. During a voyage in the Hollow one, George Sand discovered these
tapestries. This anecdote is only one episode moreover in the history
of the Lady to the Unicorn.
One
admits now that these tapestries represent the Five Directions, easily
discernible in spite of their discrete symbolic system.
The sight is symbolized by the attitude of the unicorn contemplating
its image in the mirror which the lady tightens to him. For hearing,
the young woman holds a small organ. The taste is evoked by the epic of
following which tightens a cut with its mistress; moreover, the monkey
is on the point of tasting a fruit, and the lion shows signs of
greediness. In the fourth, the sense of smell, the lady braids a
garland, and the symbol is accentuated by the mimicry of the monkey
breathing a flower.
With the fifth table, the touch, the lady
effleure of a hand the horn of the animal to the magic capacity and,
other, it holds the pole of the standard firmly.
As for the sixth
tapestry, known under the term “with my only desire”, it could be a
kind of philosophical conclusion: the lady would not choose a jewel in
the box which its following presents to him, but, on the contrary,
would deposit there, as a sign of renouncement, the collar that it
carries in the five other tapestries. According to certain authors,
this sixth tapestry would be the understanding, virtue which, with the
sight and hearing, defines the things of the spirit, whereas to touch,
taste, sense of smell are directions of the matter.
According to this theory, material world and spiritual world were linked in this fabulous animal. This symbolic system joined the hermaphrodite of hermetism and some saw in these tapestries a representation of the Philosopher's stone of the alchemists.
http://www.france-secret.com/dame_licorne_art2.htm
Other interprétaion, complementary:
In
the sixth and last tapestry of the famous series of the museum of
Cluny, entitled “the Lady with the Unicorn”, the young woman, who
strips her jewels, is about to be absorbed by the tent, symbol of the
divine presence and Vacuity. The inscription which surmounts the tent,
“A my only desire”, means that the desire of the creature merges with
that of the will which directs it. Insofar as our existence is a
“divine play”, our share becomes free and active, when we are
identified with the marionnettist who creates us and directs us. Then
it Oneself dissolves to make place with Large-Oneself, under the cosmic
tent connected to pole star.
The Lady by its grace and its wisdom (Sophia - Shakti - Shekinah, that which is under the tent) as much as by its purity, pacifies the antagonistic animals of Large-Work: the lion which symbolizes it suffers, and the unicorn, mercury. Often the Lady is comparable with salt philosophal. It is very close to the opposate of Hevajra whose name means “that which is without ego”. The drawn up horn of the unicorn, which symbolizes the spiritual fecundation and which collects the flow of universal energy is in agreement with the axial symbolism of the tent, prolonged by a point with the symbolism of the two lances, of the hairstyle of the Lady and its following, celebrate the mystical weddings of the East and of the Occident (the oak and the houx answering the orange tree and the breadfruit tree.) the oval island which supports the scene is cut out like a lotus, symbol of spiritual blooming. The small monkey sitting in front of the Lady appoints the alchemist in person, the “monkey of nature” taking care on its mistress, who can be comparable in “Materia Prima”;
http://esotcelt.unblog.fr/2006/11/26/la-licorne-et-son-symbolisme/
The
lion represents the force and in alchemy. The unicorn represents the
purity and in alchemy mercury. The griffon on the cushion represents
marital fidelity. The oak, the houx, the orange tree and the pine
represent the four cardinal points. The small monkey represents the
animality of the man. The hares are the symbolic system of the
underground life. The royal héron and the falcon symbolize the good and
the evil.
The lady with the unicorn strips these jewels to pass from the material life to the spiritual life.
http://tapisserie.com.free.fr/Explications.htm
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