The Lord and the Allegories of The Lady with the Unicorn

Abstract

The tapestries entitled The Lady with the unicorn are one of the most commented pieces of art. Instead of starting from a hypothetical person, and generation by generation arrive at the Boussac castle where the tapestries were located for the first time, the present research starts with a fact, the Boussac castle, and by continuing generation by generation backwards in time, identifies Jean IV Le Viste as the lord these tapestries were created for. The currently assumed interpretation claims that the six hangings are part of the same series which is allegedly complete, depicting the five senses. However, a careful research -based on iconographical data, and on a meticulous review of the technique, the scenography, the heraldic differences, and the attributes expressed by some animals displayed in a specific way on these scenes -makes clear that they do not belong to the same sequence; they are the remains of four different sets.