mr magorium's opera emporium

The Unicorn in Captivity (The Unicorn Tapestries), 1495-1505. Wool warp with wool, silk, silver, and gilt wefts.

‘The Unicorn Tapestries’ are a series of tapestries considered masterpieces created during the late Middle Ages period. Within the series of seven, the tapestries weave a story in which a group of noblemen hunt a unicorn through beautifully arranged forests. Each segment depicts certain parts of the narrative; the hunt, the capture, the attack, the taming by a virgin and resurrection of the unicorn, to finally the unicorn’s captivity.

This image in particular shows the final stage in the narrative: ‘The Unicorn in Captivity.’ Housed by The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art has described the work in detail:

“In this instance, the unicorn probably represents the beloved tamed. He is tethered to a tree and constrained by a fence, but the chain is not secure and the fence is low enough to leap over: The unicorn could escape if he wished. Clearly, however, his confinement is a happy one, to which the ripe, seed-laden pomegranates in the tree—a medieval symbol of fertility and marriage—testify. The red stains on his flank do not appear to be blood, as there are no visible wounds like those in the hunting series; rather, they represent juice dripping from bursting pomegranates above. Many of the other plants represented here, such as wild orchid, bistort, and thistle, echo this theme of marriage and procreation: they were acclaimed in the Middle Ages as fertility aids for both men and women. Even the little frog, nestled among the violets at the lower right, was cited by medieval writers for its noisy mating.”