The Lady and theUnicorn (2005) is set in Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium, from 1490 to
1492 – the two years of the painting, design, and weaving of the series of six wool
and silk tapestries for Jean Le Viste, a nobleman of King Charles VII.
Artist Nicolas des
Innocents has been commissioned to design the concept pictures for the large
tapestries to be hung in Jean Le Viste’s Grande Salle (Great Hall) in his
residence at the rue du Four in the suburb of Saint-Germain-des-Pres in Paris.
Nicolas is entranced
by Jean Le Viste’s young daughter, Claude. But Nicolas is a womanizer and has
already impregnated Marie-Celeste, a servant working at the Le Viste household.
Claude also, mischievously, has eyes for Nicolas. So do most the of women he
comes in contact with – both in Paris and in Brussels at the home of the
weavers who are employed to turn Nicolas’s painting into the tapestries.
This is a work of
fiction. Little was known of these famous tapestries that now hang in the Cluny
Museum in Paris. Using references and a vivid imagination Chevalier recreates
what could have occured throughout the creation of this masterpiece – the time
series of the seduction of the unicorn – drawing it next to and closer and
closer to a lady until it rests in her lap. In fact it is more than one lady
and more than one unicorn for they are in each of the six tapestries.
The novel imagines how
the concept of the unicorn and the senses originated for each tapestry: Sound (the unicorn is facing away from the lady), Taste (the unicorn is near the lady but not looking at her), Smell (the unicorn is next to the lady and looking at her), Sight (the unicorn rests its front legs on the lady's lap), Touch (the lady touches the unicorn's horn), and A Mon Seul Desir (My Sole Desire). The order of the series has never been conclusively determined.
Master weaver – the lissier Georges de la Chapelle – has
been a weaver for 30 years. With his son, Georges Le Jeune, his family and
hired weavers, they work tirelessly on the task, including Le Jeune’s blind
daughter, Alienor, who tends a garden and is the flower advisor for the
background of millefleurs (thousand flowers). Two years of hard work has given
the master weaver ‘a head of gray hair, a stoop, and a squint.’
Nicolas makes subtle
changes in the design to reflect the relationships he has with women during the
two years – such as Claude and Alienor. So why, when it’s finished and hung
does he feel that he had ‘got all the Ladies wrong?’ The unveiling of the
tapestries is during the party celebrations for The Feast of St. Valentine –
and the announcement of Claude’s engagement.
The novel has multiple
narrators, such as Nicolas des Innocents, Claude Le Viste, Genevieve de
Nanterre (Claude’s mother), Georges de la Chapelle (master weaver), Philippe de
la Tour (artist working for the weaving family), Alienor de la Chapelle, and
Christine du Sablon (Georges Le Jeune’s wife). The novel is interesting for its
creative assumptions, the work of a commissioned painter and designer, the life
of a weaving family, and the expectations of the tapestry owner – all woven
together to culminate in a series of scenes, rather than a total masterpiece.
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