SCOTLAND AND THE UNICORN

Above. the Unicorn in Captivity, a tapestry created for the Queen's Bed Chamber in Scotland's Stirling Palace, a stitch for stitch copy of its famous original created in the Low Countries/northern France around 1500 and now residing in the Cloisters Museum of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. I will tell you the story of how these tapestries were created, but first, WHY? 

 The mythical unicorn is generally considered to be a symbol of purity, only tamed by a young virgin, and otherwise unconquerable. Since the 12th c., the unicorn has been associated with Scotland and used in coats of arms and on coins. Scotland and England were united in 1603 when James VI of Scotland became King James I of Great Britain. The official coat of arms, continuing to this day as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, includes a unicorn and a lion.

I was most interested to see the Unicorn Tapestries at Stirling Castle because I had visited the "originals" at The Cloisters some time ago. They are in amazing condition with very bright colors--considering they are 500 years old.

The Cloisters is located in New York City's Fort Tryon Park. a considerable distance from the Fifth Avenue flagship building of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but well worth the effort. It was built 1935-38 to house ancient and medieval art.

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The Unicorn in Captivity, from the website of the Met (image in the public domain).  This probably is the most famous of the seven images in the set.  Below, from the Met's images, top left, The Unicorn is Found; right, The Unicorn Defends Himself; lower left,  the Unicorn Attacked; lower right, the Unicorn is Brought to the Castle

The Unicorn Tapestries were owned by the La Rochefoucauld Family in France for several centuries. They were purchased in 1922 by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and donated to the Met in 1938.

The Stirling Castle copies were carefully woven according to the original techniques and in the same materials based on high resolution digital photographs taken when the Cloisters' tapestries were cleaned and restored in 1998. Two teams of weavers worked on the weaving project, which took more than a decade to complete. Above and below the Stirling versions of "The Unicorn is Found."

According to the website, 'The project was commissioned by Historic Scotland in 2001 as part of a wider effort to restore the king's palace to its 1540s style. A team of 18 weavers from across the globe came together to reinterpret and create the "Hunt of the Unicorn" tapestries.'
    It goes on, 'In the 1540s, the palace was home to James V's wife, Mary of Guise, and their young daughter, Mary Queen of Scots. It was known from royal inventories that when James V built the palace he owned more than 100 tapestries, but there is no record of what happened to them. The inventories, however, described a set of tapestries depicting "the historie of the unicorne"... Peter Buchanan, Historic Scotland's project manager who oversaw the process, said it had been a "privilege to watch" the weavers recreate the tapestries "in all their Renaissance glory"... He said: "Whilst we may never know what happened to the original tapestries, the fact that we now have these fantastic recreations, with the assistance of the Met in New York and through the generosity of our donors, will provide visitors to the castle now, and for generations to come, with a real insight into how the palace may have been at the time of James V.'

Above, the Mystic Hunt for the Unicorn, a 'new' tapestry, recreated from fragments in the Cloisters. It is thought that the tapestries might have been trimmed to fit a particular room, amazing as that seems from our viewpoint. Below, part of the exhibit chronicling details of the creation of the Unicorn Tapestries.

The myths and legends of the Unicorn's purity and the role of the innocent maiden in taming it has long been a favorite of artists, particularly those who designed tapestries. Another famous set of Unicorn tapestries resides in the Cluny Museum in Paris, below. Note that the backgrounds of both sets of tapestries show elaborate millefleur designs, beautiful flowers and small animals in intricate detail.

We spent a half-day in the musee de Cluny in 2014 where we viewed 'The Lady and the Unicorn,' six tapestries woven around 1500 in the Low Countries or northern France. part of the Cluny's collection since 1882. The represent six senses.

Above left, the Sense of Hearing; right, Sense of Sight.
​      Like the The Hunt for the Unicorn, these tapestries represent, in the words of the Cluny curators, "a crossroads between two historical eras--that we nowadays call the Middle Ages and the Renaissance--in blurring the boundaries between the real and the imaginary ... and merging the secular and spiritual worlds."
       Below, left, Sense of Taste; right, Sense of Touch.

The senses are allegorical observations on earthly pleasures and courtly culture.  The Sixth Sense is portrayed by the lady returning her jewels to a casket.  Scholars have long debated the sensory representation -- be it moral or emotional.

Legends involving unicorns have flourished for many years...and I am tempted to add some of the images from contemporary cartoons and videos. But to place them alongside the brilliant images above almost seems blasphemous.
Long live the Scottish Unicorn!