Word: unicorn
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Centaurs, parakeets, a curly tailed unicorn resting on a carpet of flowers while pomegranate juices drip on its milky hide; heraldic crests, peasants reaping, Hector girding himself in 15th century steel, slim ladies picnicking in the everlasting green glow of a medieval Arcadia-the great exhibition of 14th to 16th century tapestries, jointly organized by the National Museums of France and New York's Metropolitan, is an exquisite arbor of diversion. Shown last October at the Grand Palais in Paris, it opened in Manhattan last week. It is undoubtedly the most important exhibition of its kind ever mounted...
...France, before. Treasure succeeds treasure: the elegant 15th century Winged Stags from Rouen, the crowded jigsaw scenes from the Trojan War, and-as a bonus-the two most famous allegorical cycles in all 15th century tapestry, here exhibited together for the first time: the Lady with the Unicorn series from the Cluny Museum in Paris and the Hunt of the Unicorn from the Cloisters in New York. Drawn from other collections as far apart as Leningrad, Brussels and Boston, there are, in all, 97 tapestries on view. These thick, fragile, faded mats of intricately worked wool are among the supreme...
...what guaranteed the value of tapestry also led to its destruction: countless masterpieces of the weaver's art were burned during the French Revolution to render down their gold and silver threads. Others, seen as emblems of monarchical privilege, were simply destroyed. The Met's own Unicorn tapestries were taken by peasants and used to wrap potatoes. Even the Angers Apocalypse served as burlap to insulate orange trees and stuff cracks in walls. This exhibition is only a fragment of what Europe lost...
...unicorn cycles, praise is an impertinence. They vary in conceptual density. The Cluny Lady with the Unicorn set is a relatively straightforward metaphor of the five senses, so that the mythic beast gazes at itself in a mirror to signify Sight. By contrast, the Cloisters' unicorn hunt is a highly complicated and frequently obscure allegory of the passion of Christ, mixed with references to courtly and profane love. But in each, a way of seeing reality that was both freshly direct and symbolic is embedded in a matrix of almost unbelievable formal beauty. Detail by detail, this...
...LAST UNICORN describes itself as a musical fantasy, and plays at the Boston Center for the Arts, which is at 539 Tremont Street...