How to Capture a in

Yihan Hong

Integrative Seminar2: Fashion

Lauren Krauze

2

"The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something so pure and defenseless to save yourself, you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."1 In the first book of Harry Potter series, Harry runs into a number of centaurs, and the leader Firenze told little Potter all about the function of the blood of a unicorn. seem to have a mysterious relationship between life and death in J.K. Rowling’s books. This amazing creature does not only appear in the fiction books, but also shows up in a lot of art works even from thousands of years ago as a symbol of purity and grace. One of the most famous art works depicting unicorn is

The Unicorn in Captivity, which is exhibited in the Cloisters in New York City. Just like the depicted beautiful creature, the itself also is mysterious with its patterns, origin, history and the stories with its old owners, and the Cloister as well.

As a part of the Metropolitan Museum, the Cloisters mainly focuses on collections that have strong religious functions or depict religious stories. As one of the most famous and precious masterpieces, the Unicorn have a very rich storyline in every one of these seven pieces. The stories of the unicorns, however, seem to have no relationship with religion. Since the unicorn has almost never been observed in the real world, it is probably a man-made creature, which might be a changing form from natural objects.2 Even though one knows when the first myth of unicorns came out, or if it really exists, this creature has already changed into fable, and became mythical. Perhaps it is a real animal that symbolizes purity, love and power.

1 J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Scholastic, 1997), 207. 2 VOSS, A. E., “PURSUIT OF THE UNICORN”. Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, no. 53. (Berghahn Books: 1–19,1979), 1. 3

Unicorns are usually described as a white horse with a horn in its forehead with the power to cure illness. They are also famous for their nobility. Many people believed that unicorns’ horns could purify any poisons and illnesses, just like

Voldemort in Harry Potter believes that unicorns’ blood could bring him back to life.

The magical power to cure and purify also brought in many artists’ works, including

Leonardo da Vinci, the very famous Italian “Universal Genius.”3 In one of his landscape drawings called “Young Women Seated in a Landscape with a Unicorn” of the late 1740s, he drew a young woman who is pointing at a unicorn. He even wrote several sentences to explain this drawing on one of his notebooks. “The unicorn…because of its intemperance, not knowing how to control itself before the delight it feels towards maidens, forgets its ferocity and wildness, and casting aside all fear it will go up to the seated maiden and sleep in her lap, and thus the hunter takes it.”4 It is not surprise that Leonardo da Vinci mentioned maidens and hunters in his notebook.

Another important belief about unicorns is that they can only be captured by virgins. Virginity and purity are the most important factors of Christianity, were emphasized in the myths of unicorns. These seem to have some relationships with the story of Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus when she was still a virgin. But the relationship between unicorns and Christianity does not only show up here. Realizing this creature has perfect power of virginity, the Church incorporated the unicorns as a representation of “moral purity and of Christ’s having raised the horn of salvation for

3 Young Women Seated in a Landscape with a Unicorn, Ashmolean Museum, University of the Arts, London 2016, http://www.universalleonardo.org/work.php?id=438. 4 Ibid. 4 the world.”5 The horn, which ancients had feared as a sword, now symbolized

Christ’s unity with the Father.”6 Not only is the unicorn a symbol of purity and virginity, but it is also a representative of Christ. The unicorn has many reasons that it attracts to the artists and also those who believe in Christianity. It is a magnificent symbol in religion art.

Scholars and Christians believe in the myth about virgins capturing unicorns for thousands of years, and this belief also shows up with The Hunt of the Unicorn hanging in the Cloisters. The Hunt of the Unicorn is actually seven tapestries. The first six tapestries depict a whole story of people preparing to hunt, finding the unicorn by the fountain, a virgin capturing a unicorn, killing the unicorn, and bringing it back to the castle. The whole story seems to be end after these six tapestries.

However, in the last tapestry “The Unicorn in Captivity,” which is the seventh tapestry of this series, this unicorn that supposed to be dead is drawn alive again and surrounded by a fence in the field of flowers with a pomegranate tree. This whole story of unicorn being killed and alive again reminds a lot of the resurrection of Jesus.

Also, with the symbols of virginity and purity, these tapestries’ religious factors seem to be pretty obvious. Among all of the plants illustrated in these tapestries, the pomegranate tree in the center of the last tapestry attracts more attention. According to Eleanor C. Marquand’s theory, putting a pomegranate tree in the center probably goes back to the idea of marriage, “would seem to unite both a religious and a secular

5 Luke 1:69, Holy Bible. 6 Larkins, James E.. “Myth Upon Myth: Five Animals of the Romancero Gitano”. Hispania 64 (1) (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese: 14–22, March, 1981), 14. 5 idea in a single symbol.”7 Also, certain details like the unicorn’s action of kicking in the fourth tapestry are read as different stages of marriage like “the bridegroom’s struggles with other suitors.”8 With these assumptions, the unicorn tapestries probably show a whole process of a marriage turning into a failure, but then returning back to a happy relationship. The unicorn in the last tapestry seems not to be in pain anymore, even though it was captured in the fence.

In a close look at the tapestries, and it is clear that there are several golden initials of F, R, A and E sewn into the sky. These are considered as the leading clues about the tapestries’ history and former owners. The letters “A” and “E” were originally on the tapestries, and are thought to be signatures of some royal family from the time in Europe. However, since researchers could not find any relationships to members of royal families, the first owner of these tapestries is told unknown.9 The initials of “F” and “R” are found certainly and related to the La Rochefoucauld family of France. In 1922, this family sold the tapestries to John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Talking about John D. Rockefeller, Jr., is one of the most important people who became one part of the whole history of the unicorn tapestries and the Cloisters.

He is a faithful pilgrim, who thinks his money as both the biggest pressure and his guilty pleasure in his whole life. Marrying the daughter of a powerful Senator Nelson

Wilmarth Aldrich of Rhode Island, Abigail Green Aldrich, John D. Rockefeller soon

7 Marquand, Eleanor C., “Plant Symbolism in the Unicorn Tapestries”. Parnassus 10 (5). (College Art Association, Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 1938) 8 Ibid 9 Melissa Pearce, “The Search for the Unicorn: An Exploration into Medieval Mythology”, The Culture Trip. 6 developed his interests in art works.10 With strong faith and interest in religions, John

D. Rockefeller started to pay attention to medieval architectures and gothic sculptures.

In 1925, he bought the Cloisters from George Gray Barnard, who designed and built up the whole architecture of the Cloisters. He turned it into a museum and donated millions of dollars to the Metropolitan Museum.11

Thinking of mixing the basic structure and appearance of medieval cloisters,

John D. Rockefeller hired , who had just graduated from Harvard

University to take charge of the whole design of the new Cloisters in1927. Although

James Rorimer was only 24 years old at the time, with his genius and skills, “he worked hand in hand with Rockefeller and took the museum through its final stages of construction.”12 When the whole design was done, John D. Rockefeller noticed that there is a room called “Tapestries Hall,” and asked Rorimer what kinds of tapestries he wanted to put inside. James Rorimer asked for Rockefeller’s collections of the

Unicorn Tapestries, even though he knew that John D. Rockefeller loved to meditate standing in front of these tapestries every day. After the whole construction of the new Cloisters, John Rockefeller presented more than 40 of his own medieval works of art, including his beloved Unicorn Tapestries.13

But the stories between the Unicorn Tapestries and the Cloisters did not ended there. After the tapestries moved to the hall, as Rorimer’s wish, in 1998 the Cloisters

10 Tomkins, Calvin, “Merchants and Masterpieces: the Story of the Metropolitan Museum”,( E.P.Dutton, 1970), 219. 11 Ibid, 221. 12 “The Cloister: A History”, The Metropolitan Museum, http://www.metmuseum.org/press/news/2006/the-cloisters-a-history. 13 Tomkins, Calvin, “Merchants and Masterpieces: the Story of the Metropolitan Museum”,( E.P.Dutton, 1970), 221. 7 began a renovation of the tapestries room. For the construction work, the tapestries were rolled up and moved to the museum’s textile department for cleaning and restoration.14 When the team of textile conservators tried to change the backings of the tapestries and removed the linen threads, they surprisingly found out that the backs of the tapestries “were almost perfect mirror images of the fronts, but the colors were different.” They were also “incredibly bright, rich, and deep, more subtle and natural-looking.”15 Fifty years after the tapestries moved to the MET, nobody has ever seen them in this way. After this discovery, the whole team decided to put tapestries into a big tub to bathe them, and take photos on both sides of the tapestries “to preserve a record of the colors and the mirror images.”16 However, making a digital image of the Unicorn tapestries was nearly one of the most difficult works to the photography studio at the Met. Since the both sides of tapestries had to be photographed with the narrow view of the camera, photographers could only take one three-by-three-foot image of a tapestry at a time.17 When the curator of medieval art at the Metropolitan and the Cloisters Peter Barnet saw the whole process of working with the tapestries, he said, “The tapestry seemed to be liquefied.”18 And that was exactly the most difficult part for the photographers to “capture” the unicorn with moving water and changing lightings. After continuously failing to “catch” the unicorn, the team had to give up. After years in 1992, two mathematicians finally solved the problems with moving cameras vertically and horizontally while taking photographs to keep the sizes of the weaves at the right places. The whole process

14 Richard Preston, Capturing the Unicorn: Art and Science(The New Yorker 81.8, Apr.11, 2005). 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Richard Preston, Capturing the Unicorn: Art and Science(The New Yorker 81.8, Apr.11, 2005). 18 Richard Preston, Capturing the Unicorn: Art and Science(The New Yorker 81.8, Apr.11, 2005). 8 took them another three months of computation to make the whole image flawless.

When Gregory Chudnovskys, who was one the two mathematicians, discussed his works on the Unicorn Tapestries, he said, “The Unicorn in Captivity…This was a math problem similar to the analysis of DNA or speech recognition.” 19 His answers brought up a really interesting topic; even though the Unicorn Tapestries was a creation from the medieval age, but still, the complicated structures and patterns introduced so many difficulties in documenting and copying to modern people. This is quite amazing.

With all the myths, difficulties and mysteries of the Unicorn Tapestries, and the close relationships between the tapestries and the museum of the Cloisters itself, the tapestries seems to have more enigma for people to solve. People in the modern world probably have already lost touch with the stories and the meanings in the

Unicorn Tapestries. Representation of Christ, the story of death and resurrection, and the explanations of marriage, the Unicorn Tapestries seem to belong with the

Cloisters in their destiny. People can forever stare at them with both in pure faith and enjoyment.

19 Ibid. 9

Annotated Bibliography

Calvin Tomkins, Merchants and Masterpieces: the Story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art(H. Holt, 1970).

This book tells about the whole story and history of the Metropolitan Museum and the masterpieces inside the museum, that helps me to understand and learn more about the relationship between the unicorn tapestries and the museum as well.

Eleanor C. Marquand, Plant Symbolism in the Unicorn Tapestries, December 23,

2015.

This source gives a lot of details of the fruits and nuts depicted in the tapestries, and compares these plants’ symbolization. This source helps to give me a brief introduction of the plants, and helps me to understand more of the tapestries.

Also, the detailed pictures could help me to learn more of the plants and patterns.

Larkins, James E.. “Myth Upon Myth: Five Animals of the Romancero Gitano”.

Hispania 64 (1) (American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese: 14–22,

March, 1981).

This book gives a lot of information of the symbolism and Christianity myths hiding in the myths of unicorns, which gives me more information about the religious relationship of the unicorn tapestries.

Richard Preston, Capturing the Unicorn: Art and Science(The New Yorker 81.8,

Apr.11, 2005). 10

This source tells the true story of two mathematicians used science and math trying to solve the problem taking photos of the unicorn tapestries in the Cloister. This source helps me to know more mysterious and confusing factor of the tapestries, but to the mystery in a scientific way.

“The Cloister: A History”, The Metropolitan Museum, http://www.metmuseum.org/press/news/2006/the-cloisters-a-history.

This source mainly focuses on the history of the Cloisters, mentioned a little about the Unicorn Tapestries, but helped me to collect and make it clear about the relationship between John D. Rockefeller and the architecture.

Voss, A. E., “Pursuit of the Unicorn”, Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political

Theory, no. 53. (Berghahn Books: 1–19,1979).

This book shows a lot of research of the origin of unicorns, myths, poems, and even other art works mentioned unicorns, which gives me a brief concept of the character of unicorns in the art world.