"A gardyn saw I ful blosmy bowes..." : the commanding love in "La Dame a la licorne" of the Musee de Cluny

Abstract

When in 1841 Prosper Merimee visited the Limousin region in his capacity as the general inspector of historical monuments, he was attracted to the imposing and picturesquely located fortress of Boussac, rebuilt in the 15th century by one of Jeanne d'Arc companions, and sold only four years before Merimee's sojourn to the local prefecture. It was there that he encountered and discovered one of the wonders of the late Middle Ages, a group of six tapestries that for over a hundred and twenty years have been the highlight of the French National Museum of the Middle Ages, the Musee de Cluny in Paris. Since the day they were hung in the museum's dark, first-floor room, they have become one of the must-sees for anyone visiting the French capital, and a neverending source of income to all those spawning their better or worse reproductions and copies. Incidentally, the famous, socalled, "Five Senses" tapestries seem to be mirroring the history of the Hotel de Cluny - like the present museum, erected as a Parisian residence for the Cluny abbots towards the end of the 15th century, the sizeable tapestries are also thought to have been woven around that time. Furthermore, the museum was founded only a year after the tapestries were found, even though they were not installed there until 1882.