The Unicorn Tapestries | Explore & Learn | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Two fragments of a lost tapestry from the Unicorn Tapestries (detail), ca. 1495–1505
South Netherlandish
Wool warp, wool, silk, silver, and gilt wefts; at the left, height 6 feet, 6 inches; width 2 feet, 1 inch (1.98 x .65 meters). At the right, height 5 feet, 6 inches; width 2 feet, 1 inch (1.69 x .65 meters)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1937 (37.80.1,2)

The unicorn comes eagerly to the lap of the maid whose delicate hand rest on his mane. Medieval authorities agreed on the essentials of this episode, as the unicorn surrendered his fierceness and became vulnerable though his encounter with the maid, so Christ surrendered his divine nature and became human through the Virgin Mary.

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