Search for the Unicorn: An Exhibition in Honor of The Cloisters’ 75th Anniversary
The Search for the Unicorn is just one of the exhibition that will make up the programme at the Metropolitan Museum this year as the Cloisters, the museum’s home in Manhattan, celebrates it’s 75th anniversary.
The Cloisters is home to the famous Unicorn Tapestries which were produced in Belgium around the 15th/16th Centuries. The seven panels which make up this series were originally housed in France but were gifted to the museum in 1937.
The tapestries are currently on show at the Cloisetrs (until 18 August 2013) along with a large collection of material documenting the quest for the elusive unicorn including texts, paintings, drawings and objects which include a ‘real’ unicorn horn (actually a narwhal tusk).
Moses Soncino, Unicorn and Ram, from the Meshal ha-Kadmoni (Fable of the Ancients), 1491
My chances of making it all the way to New York to view this wonderful collection for myself are more or less non-existent. I did visit the Fleming Collection in London recently as they were exhibiting a replica of the Hunt for the Mystical Unicorn tapestry which has been commissioned by Historic Scotland to be housed at Stirling Castle where the collection of unicorn tapestries was once held by King James. Even to experience this replica was a wonder so I can only imagine how magical the original tapestries would be.
Search for the Unicorn opens May 15 and is on view through August 18 at the Cloisters museum; www.metmuseum.org