[MR] History Blog: Hunt for the Unicorn Tapestries and Video

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today the History Blog presents a brief piece on the Hunt for the Unicorn
tapestries, part of the Metropolitan Museum's Cloisters collection.
Accompanying the piece is a 30-minute video discussing the hangings,
particularly the panel which shows the unicorn purifying waters which flow
from a fountain. This video is a fascinating discussion of the panel by
three Met curators, who explain the presence of various animals and plants,
and their significance to medieval thought and society:
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/59262 .

More on the Unicorn tapestries is found at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunt_of_the_Unicorn .

What the story and the video don't mention is that there is another set of
Unicorn tapestries in Scotland's Stirling Castle. King James V is known to
have owned a set of these hangings, now sadly lost. Several years ago
Historic Scotland commissioned a set of seven tapestries modeled on the
Met's originals. The project took 13 years to complete, and they now hang
in the Queen's chambers at Stirling Castle. The workshop where some were
woven is now a museum-within-a-museum that explains how the tapestries were
created. You can view another video about the Stirling copies at
https://www.stirlingcastle.scot/discover/highlights/the-stirling-tapestries/
.

Lady Sarah and I had the pleasure of viewing the tapestries during our 2017
visit to Stirling Castle. I must admit, that while I enjoyed seeing them, I
didn't give the tapestries the attention they deserve. I was too caught up
in the Stirling Heads, the costumes of the docents, Mary of Guise's golf
clubs. Ah! Next time!

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆