I. — Les tapisseries de Cluny

The set of tapestries of the Dame à la Licorne, one of the chief treasures of the Cluny Muséum, is famous ail the world over. Students of tapestry are accustomed to regard them as a touchstone, on which may be tried the quality of other tapestries of the time to which they belong, and ail who are interested in décorative art are agreed that here the late middle-age has surpassed itself. The ireason for this universal high esteem is perhaps not so simple as it may appear at first. The verdict, which is unanimous, is obviously just, but it is given more instinctively than argument atively ; most peuple cannot quite say why they like them so much. If we think over the matter, three considérations will probably be uppermost in our minds. First, the tapestries

ART OCCIDENTAL

belong to that attractive period in the Mstory of the craft when tlie médiéval qualities of sLmplicity of design, and the harmonious juxtaposition of few but pure colours were still the principal aim of tapestiy-weavers. The attributes of that period are shovTi at their best in the Cluny tapes tries. But there is a peculiar feature about the colour scheme here, and this is our second point. The scenes are shovTi in a flowery meadow, but instead of spreading tbi<; out to cover the whole surface of the tapestiy’, as is usuaUy the case, the meadow is a circumscribed oval patch, the wider space beyond being of a beautiful red colour, powdered vith separate stems. This is a bold innovation, but it is warranted by its success. Change the red groimd to blue or green, and the tapestries would be quite différent, and much more like other tapestries of the time. The third point is that there has always been a sense of mysteiy about the subject. WTio is the lady who acts the chief part in each of the six panels, and why is she represented as occupied in apparently aimless fashion ? The question of the subject has often been discussed. M. Jules Guiffrey, the distinguished French historian of tapestiy, writes, as foUows ^ : « On a disserté à perte de \Tie sur l’origine de ces tableaux, sur leur signification mystérieuse, sans arriver à une explication satisfaisante. Doit-on y voir une allégorie discrète aux qualités de la noble dame à qui les tapisseries étaient destinées ?... Quant à l’aventure du prince Zizim, frère de Bajazet, enfermé au château de Boussac, et à ses amours avec ime belle dame des environs, dont la tapisserie retracerait les traits, il faut la reléguer dans le domaine des fables romanesques. Il paraît bien plus vraisemblable que ces tapisseries ont été inspirées par un poétique roman dont l'original est perdu, n At the time that these tapestries passedfr om the château at Boussac into the possession of the french State (July, 1882), M. Cahier vTOte * that while stiU at Boussac the « provenance