The Unicorn Tapestries: The Unicorn In Captivity

The Unicorn in Captivity is one of the most famous works of art at the Cloisters Museum. This is the final panel from a set of seven wall hangings, known collectively as the Unicorn Tapestries. They are from an era when woven tapestries were among the most highly prized forms of art in Northern Europe. Tapestries had the capacity to convert dreary and drafty castle walls into brilliant scenes of mythological and religious subjects. All naturalistically depicted, as located within the courtly world, of the medieval noble. In the subjects that they depict, and the artistic strategies that they employ, these masterpieces of late medieval art visualize an imaginary and possibly allegorical narrative. In the unicorn tapestries, we see the hunt, capture. Death, and resurrection, of the mythical creature. Each of these scenes includes symbolism that likens the unicorn's fate to the passion of Christ. The first tapestry portrays well-dressed hunters and their dogs beginning the hunt. A figure in the upper right beckons the hunters into the forest and draws the viewer towards the next scene. In the second panel, the unicorn is sighted at a fountain. The mythical creature is at the center of an animal paradise. In the third tapestry, hunters surround the unicorn. However, in the fourth panel, he escapes. These two scenes demonstrate that the swift and powerful unicorn cannot be captured by force. Only two fragments of the fifth tapestry survive. But it is nevertheless a critical turning point in the narrative. This woven image depicts the myth that the unicorn could only be captured by a virgin. Pursued by a hunter, the unicorn is subdued by a maiden within an enclosed garden. In the sixth panel, the unicorn appears twice. In the upper left. It is killed. In the center of the composition, the martyred creature's dead body is carried on a horse. The unicorn's magical horn was its most prized treasure. This has been broken off, and then tied to the creature's neck with thorny branches. The principal lady. Gestures towards the unicorn with one hand, and holds a strand of rosary beads with the other. Since rosary beads are an aid to prayer. They suggest that she is in a state of spiritual devotion. The sight of the martyred unicorn has inspired her faith. Looking toward her male companion, she acts as a potential spiritual guide for him. And a possible model for the viewer. The seventh and last tapestry is the most famous. Resurrected from the dead, the unicorn sits in an enclosed garden. The captured unicorn might have several layers of significance. The gold chain that ties the unicorn is a reference to wedlock. The pomegranates are symbols of fertility. While scholars have proposed several nuptials that could be celebrated here, the fenced-in unicorn is an elegant image of courtly marriage. The unicorn is also a symbol of Christ. The capture, killing, and resurrection of the unicorn would have been understood by the medieval viewer as an allegorical reference to Christ. In achieving its aim of visualizing the unicorn as Christ. This tapestry employs both allegorical symbolism, and a distinctly non-narrative visual method. The arrangement of the plants in this final tapestry is significantly less naturalistic than in the earlier panels. As the hunt begins, the forest creates a naturalistic space in which the narrative unfolds. In the final panel, the garden is more patterned. This type of design, which was very popular around the year 1500. Is known as milfleur. Milfleur is French for thousand flowers. These flowering plants are uniformly dispersed across the field. The result is a representation of space that seems to rise vertically rather than expand pictorially. In the final panel, the unicorn is depicted outside of narrative time. This work demonstrates how the visual language employed in depicting a subject. Materializes a way of seeing that subject. In the unicorn tapestries at the cloisters, the first six panels depict narrative subjects. Even though these events occur in a magical forest, they still unfold in narrative time. This use of narrative method, and attention to visual naturalism, helped to reinforce the medieval belief in the reality of the unicorn. However, in the final panel, the non-narrative method of representing the unicorn dramatically reinterprets it. The resurrected unicorn has not only defeated death. The magical creature is depicted here, has transcended narrative time. It now resides in a timeless state of grace.