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ユニコーン狩りのタペストリー

1495–1505
On view at The Met Cloisters in Gallery 17
この作品は、クロイスターズに収蔵されている伝説のユニコーンを題材とする7枚のタペ ストリーの1枚です。馬のような架空の動物が噴水の前に膝をつき、その下を流れる水にねじれた長い角を浸しています。一組のキジとゴシキヒワが噴水の縁にとまっており、鹿とウサギがライオンなどの野生動物とともに植物の間で休んでいます。12 人の狩人とその猟犬が動物たちに襲いかかろうと取り囲 んでいます。解毒剤と信じられていたセージやオレンジなどが噴水から流れる水の近くで大きく育っており、水はユニコーンの魔法の角で清められています。クロイスターズに収蔵されている7枚のタペストリーには、いずれもAとEの文字が組み合わされた文字があり、不明とされている最初の所有者夫婦の頭文字ではないかと考えられています。

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 題: ユニコーン狩りのタペストリー
  • 月日: 1495–1505年
  • 文化: 南ネーデルラント
  • 手法: 羊毛の経糸、羊毛、絹、銀箔の緯糸
  • 寸法: 3.7 x 3.8 m
  • 提供者: ジョン D. ロックフェラー Jr. 寄贈、1937年
  • 受け入れ番号: 37.80.2
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters

Audio

以下でのみ利用可能: English
Cover Image for 64. The Unicorn Is Found (from the Unicorn Tapestries)

64. The Unicorn Is Found (from the Unicorn Tapestries)

Gallery 17

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NARRATOR: Surrounding a tall white fountain is a company of twelve hunters and their dogs who have found the unicorn. The mystical beast, shown here kneeling on the ground, is dipping his horn into a stream. Other animals are also present. A pair of goldfinches perches on the fountain, not far from a pair of pheasants. Rabbits, lions, and other animals – some more realistic-looking than others -- flank both sides of the stream. According to legend, the unicorn cannot be disturbed when performing a magical act. Scholars have suggested that the unicorn is in the process of purifying a poisoned stream, a hypothesis supported by the presence of such plants as pot marigold—which you’ll see under the hyena’s chin; sage—the plant with the blue flowers in front of the fountain; and an orange tree in the lower right corner of the tapestry. All of them stand in close proximity to the stream and are known to have been used as antidotes against poison in the Middle Ages. The orange tree deserves a second look. It is flowering and bearing fruit at the same time – unusual yet botanically accurate. It has also been identified by botanists as a type of sweet orange introduced in Europe only around 1500. The precision with which the orange tree is represented attests to the designer’s careful observation, which we find not only in the depiction of plants but that of other objects throughout the tapestries. Our next stop is to the right, “The Unicorn Leaps Across A Stream.”

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