The unicorn tapestries

The art of the Middle Ages was rich in intentional symbolism that is largely forgotten in the modern world. This is because so much of the symbolism was religious. A secular society finds it quite difficult to understand a world where God is central to all things; yet this is most certainly the world that the unicorn tapestries were woven in.


The tapestries were made at great expense, and we can presume a great deal of thought when in to what they look like and the message they were conveying. Yet in the case of both sets of tapestries, the message has been obscured by time. The idea that there is an inner, or spiritual, meaning to each set of tapestries is almost certainly valid; most works of that time incorporated such mysteries. They had both an external and an internal meaning. Artists of the Middle Ages were extraordinarily clever at crafting devices that contained both such messages; and these tapestries are no exception.


This book, which examines the unicorn tapestries found at the Cluny Museum in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum’s Cloisters  in New York City, is an excerpt from the author’s more extensive examination of  medieval art entitled The Reconstruction of the Soul, also available in the iTunes bookstore.


 The book examines both sets of tapestries in the context of spiritual and esoteric meaning, focusing on the theme of man’s two natures. Using this as a starting point, a great deal of otherwise obscure symbolism in the tapestries becomes more understandable. While a great deal more remains to be done to fully understand the meaning of the tapestries, the book puts each of them in an understandable context and draws both groups together in a larger context.