Interesting Lecture of the Unicorns

Interesting Lecture about Unicorns

 An interesting lecture about unicorns’ appearance in tapestries was given by Dr. Jules Janick, a distinguished professor in horticulture. In his lecture he mainly discussed about two series of tapestries in 15th century: The Lady and the Unicorn and The Hunt of the Unicorn. Dr. Janick also made an assumption about the true designer of The Hunt of the Unicorn is Jean Bourdichon.

 In the beginning of the lecture, Dr. Janich talked about the close relationship between horticulture and art, although horticulture is a science subject, is still tied up closely with art over the years. In many art masterpiece, we can see detailed depictions of flora, fruit, trees and all other plants.

 In both tapestries, especially in The Hunt of the Unicorn, we can see many plants at that time. Fruit is most often depicted. Dr. Janick said the reason that fruit is very popular in those art piece is because fruit was a sign of nobility and wealth. The nobility and the wealthy would hire people to manage their own fruit garden, so that fruit somehow became a symbol of wealth. So does hunting, which was a privilege of nobilities. The Hunt of the Unicorn has 7 episodes, two of which were missing. It includes the Hunters Enter the Woods, The Unicorn Purifies Stream, The Unicorn Leaps the stream, The Unicorn Defends Itself, The Unicorn Is Tamed,  The Unicorn in Captivity, and The Unicorn is Killed. In those tapestries, we can see the artist’s initial AE(a backward E) hiding in the background trees.