The Unicorn Tapestries(thecollector.com)
thecollector.com
The Unicorn Tapestries
https://www.thecollector.com/what-makes-hunt-of-the-unicorn-tapestries-fascinating/
7 comments
Note the cloven hooves on the unicorns. That's a detail modern depictions often get wrong. Everybody who knows anything about unicorns will tell you their hooves are cloven.
That's because we think of unicorns as horses, but in the Middle Ages and Renaissance they thought of them as goats. Cue the stories of unicorns falling asleep in the lap of virgins.
Thanks for this fact. My daughter thinks she knows everything about unicorns, I'm so going to one-up her when se comes home from school today.
The facial hair is also a dead giveaway.
I'm wondering, since they keep mentioning the mysterious "AE" letters woven everywhere with a reversed E, wouldn't it actually make more sense to look at the tapestries back to front (as they do with the one showing the hunters entering the wood)?
That way the E would be the right way around and the letters would read "EA". Equally mysterious, but at least graphically correct.
That way the E would be the right way around and the letters would read "EA". Equally mysterious, but at least graphically correct.
There are woven reproductions of these in Stirling castle, worth going to see if you are in Scotland. https://www.stirlingcastle.scot/discover/highlights/the-stir...
Interesting companion piece about the challenges of tapestry digitization in 2005: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/04/11/capturing-the-...