The Hunt of the Unicorn Tapestry Set: A Recontextualization

Abstract

The original narrative and purpose of The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries on display at The Cloisters of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have been lost to time. Theories abound in an attempt to expound this lost narrative, including traditions of courtly love and the belief that the cycle represents the story of Christ’s Passion. While I offer my own insights as to why I do not fully agree with these interpretations, I argue that the narrative of the hunt is plain in this cycle and that there is much to learn in analyzing the human-canine relationship present in nearly every scene, rather than focus on what we can only hypothesize is there. In this research project my purpose is not to refute the main interpretations proposed in the past for The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries; rather, I intend to redirect the dialogue about the tapestry set, focusing on the human-canine relationship depicted. Referencing various manuscripts of Gaston Phébus’ Livre de la Chasse, I connect the imagery within the illuminations to the scenes of the tapestry set, hoping to bring further attention to the importance of the relationship in the hopes that it serves as a starting point for museum visitors who may be interested in the tapestry set, but may be too intimidated by the vast scholarship surrounding the artworks. At the culmination of this research, I offer two hypothetical text panels I have written regarding 15th-century aristocratic hunting and the human-canine relationship required for the practice of venery, hunting with hounds, to further contextualize the intimidating tapestry set for the average museum visitor ofThe Cloisters.