Independent guides to unicorn and other medieval tapestries

Unicorn Tapestry

Objects · Workshops · Rooms · Museums · Images

Objects, people, rooms & afterlives

The history around the Unicorn Tapestries

Use the famous unicorn images as a doorway into workshops, materials, patrons, rooms, collecting, museums, photography, interpretation, and reproduction.

Begin with a specific question: who made the tapestries, what details can really support an interpretation, and how do museum records change what we think we know?

Explore featured guides Luxury buying guide → Browse the encyclopedia → Guides en français ↓
Date
c. 1495–1505
Surviving scenes
Seven tapestries
Collection
The Met Cloisters
The Unicorn Rests in a Garden, c. 1495–1505 The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Open Access

Four details, four investigations

Follow your curiosity

Begin with something visible. Each guide follows one detail before asking what it might mean.

Editorial detail crop showing the unicorn’s collar, chain, pomegranate tree, and separate fence Detail crop · The Met · Open Access
Evidence or inference?

What does the chain actually attach to?

Follow the line from the unicorn’s collar to the pomegranate tree—and keep it separate from the surrounding fence.

Investigate the detail  →
Editorial detail crop of the lady holding a mirror as the unicorn looks towards it Detail crop · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Look at the gaze

Who is looking at whom?

A mirror turns Sight into an exchange among the lady, the unicorn, its reflection, and the viewer.

Investigate the detail  →
Editorial detail crop of small animals and flowering plants in a millefleurs tapestry Detail crop · Rijksmuseum · CC0
Compare visual types

What makes a millefleurs field different from verdure?

Compare flower-filled grounds with foliage, armorial, narrative, grotesque, and other tapestry traditions.

Investigate the detail  →
Editorial detail crop of the unicorn and animals gathered around the fountain Detail crop · The Met · Open Access
Read one scene

Why are the animals waiting at the fountain?

Study water, observation, legendary poison lore, and the moment the hunters first find their quarry.

Investigate the detail  →

One image, three different things

From woven object to museum image to modern wall

A historic tapestry, its digital photograph, and a luxury printed decorative wall hanging can share a composition without being the same kind of object.

01
Historic object

Identify what you are looking at

Separate the two famous cycles, find the museum record, and learn which facts a photograph cannot supply.

Use the orientation guide  →
02
Museum encounter

Change your viewing distance

Prepare for The Met Cloisters with questions about scale, sequence, surface, gallery light, and slow looking.

Plan a thoughtful visit  →
03
Luxury buying guide

Choose a luxury printed wall hanging

Compare image provenance, crop, proportions, documented materials, finishing, seller transparency, and how the composition reads on a new wall.

Use the buyer’s checklist  →

The useful question changes at each step. Museum records describe historic objects; image records document files; product specifications describe modern goods.

The Hunt of the Unicorn

A story told in seven scenes

Move through the cycle from the first glimpse in the woods to its strange, unforgettable ending.

Hunters and hounds entering a wooded landscape in the Unicorn Tapestries I
Enter the woods

The hunt begins

Open the scene  →
The unicorn beside a fountain surrounded by animals II
At the fountain

The unicorn is found

Open the scene  →
The unicorn leaping through a stream as hunters approach III
The chase quickens

Across the stream

Open the scene  →
The unicorn defending itself against hunters and hounds IV
A fierce defence

The unicorn fights back

Open the scene  →
The unicorn resting beside a maiden in a fragment of the tapestry cycle V
A mysterious capture

The maiden appears

Open the scene  →
Hunters returning with the unicorn before a castle VI
The procession

Return to the castle

Open the scene  →
The unicorn enclosed in a garden beneath a pomegranate tree VII
The famous finale

Alive in the garden

Open the scene  →

Details from the collection

Study the tapestries more closely

Examine selected details from medieval unicorn tapestries, including the fountain scene, hunting hounds, millefleurs plants, the garden enclosure, and the unicorn itself.

Choose your path

What are you curious about?

01

The complete Hunt

Meet every panel and follow the action.

Explore the series → 02

The Lady and the Unicorn

Discover the six senses and their mysterious final scene.

Meet the Lady → 03

Symbols & evidence

Investigate the unicorn, fountain, fence, flowers, and initials without relying on a secret-code shortcut.

Test the clues → 04

How tapestries were made

See how wool, silk, dye, and patient hands built a world.

Go behind the threads →
The unicorn dipping its horn into a fountain

One detail to notice

Why is the unicorn touching the water?

People once believed a unicorn’s horn could detect or neutralize poison. In this scene, the animals wait while the unicorn lowers its horn toward the fountain—a magical idea rendered with careful observation of real birds, plants, and water.

The mixture of fantasy and natural detail is part of what makes the Unicorn Tapestries feel so alive.

Explore the fountain scene →

Le guide en français

Deux cycles.
Une licorne.
Mille mystères.

10 articles en français

Explorez La Dame à la licorne, La Chasse à la licorne, leur fabrication et les symboles qui fascinent depuis cinq siècles.

Commencer ici · Guide essentiel

« À mon seul désir »

La Dame à la licorne

Son histoire, les cinq sens, la sixième tapisserie et les questions qui restent sans réponse.

Lire le guide complet  →
02

La symbolique de la licorne au Moyen Âge

Pureté, christianisme, amour courtois et puissance sauvage.

 03

La Chasse à la licorne

L’histoire et la signification des sept tentures survivantes.

 04

La Dame ou La Chasse ?

Comparer les chefs-d’œuvre de Paris et de New York.

 05

Les symboles cachés

Fleurs, animaux, fontaine, grenadier, clôture et chaîne.

 06

Comment fabriquait-on une tapisserie ?

Laine, soie, teintures, cartons et métiers à tisser.

 07

Visiter le musée de Cluny

Préparer sa visite et mieux regarder les six tapisseries.

 08

Résumé pour les élèves

Dates, lieux, matières, vocabulaire et faits essentiels.

 09

Qui les a fabriquées ?

Ateliers, lissiers, commanditaires et indices historiques.

 10

La licorne aujourd’hui

LGBTQ+, amour, spiritualité et significations modernes.

About the publication

A focused history radiating out from the objects

The publication begins with The Hunt of the Unicorn and The Lady and the Unicorn, then follows their wider world: design and weaving, patronage, rooms, collecting, museum records, display, photography, and reproduction.

Articles compare collection records and established sources, identify uncertainty, and separate historic woven objects from modern printed decorative wall hangings.

Good questions

A quick introduction

What is the story of the Unicorn Tapestries?

The surviving works commonly presented as the Hunt of the Unicorn depict hunters discovering, pursuing, and capturing a unicorn. The separate garden image shows the unicorn alive inside a fence; its exact relationship to the hunt sequence remains debated.

What does the unicorn symbolize?

There is no single settled meaning. The unicorn can suggest purity, love, marriage, power, or Christ. The tapestries are compelling partly because courtly and religious meanings can overlap.

Where are the famous Unicorn Tapestries?

The Hunt of the Unicorn belongs to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and is associated with The Met Cloisters in New York, although gallery display can change. The separate Lady and the Unicorn series is held by the Musée de Cluny in Paris.

When were they made?

The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries are dated around 1495–1505 and associated with the South Netherlandish tradition. The Met records wool warps with wool, silk, silver, and gilt wefts.

Keep exploring

There is more hiding in the garden.

Browse the encyclopedia by story, symbol, animal, flower, or craft.

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