How to Capture a Unicorn in the Cloisters 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. Unicorns 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 tapestry 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 Tapestries 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 James Rorimer, 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.