‘Enormously enjoyable’ Evening Standard‘Charming’ The Times‘What would you have me paint instead of a battle, Madame?’ Geneviève de Nanterre’s eyes gleamed. ‘A unicorn.’Keen to demonstrate his new-found favour with the King, rising nobleman Jean le Viste commissions six tapestries to adorn the walls of his château. He expects soldiers and bloody battlefields. But artist Nicolas des Innocents instead designs a seductive world of women, unicorns and flowers, using as his muses Le Viste’s wife Geneviève and ripe young daughter Claude.In Belgium, as his designs spring to life under the weavers’ fingers, Nicolas is inspired once more – by the master weaver’s daughter Aliénor and her mother Christine. They too will be captured by his threads.
Оглавление
Tracy Chevalier. The Lady and the Unicorn
THE TAPESTRIES
Copyright
1
Paris. Lent–Eastertide 1490
NICOLAS DES INNOCENTS
CLAUDE LE VISTE
GENEVIÈVE DE NANTERRE
2
Brussels. Whitsuntide 1490
GEORGES DE LA CHAPELLE
PHILIPPE DE LA TOUR
ALIÉNOR DE LA CHAPELLE
CHRISTINE DU SABLON
3
Paris and Chelles. Eastertide 1491
NICOLAS DES INNOCENTS
GENEVIÈVE DE NANTERRE
CLAUDE LE VISTE
4
Brussels. May Day 1491—Septuagesima 1492
GEORGES DE LA CHAPELLE
ALIÉNOR DE LA CHAPELLE
CHRISTINE DU SABLON
PHILIPPE DE LA TOUR
5
Paris. Septuagesima 1492
NICOLAS DES INNOCENTS
Epilogue
Notes and Acknowledgments
About the Author
By Tracy Chevalier
About the Publisher
Отрывок из книги
Little is known about the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. They were woven in c.1500, probably in Flanders. In 1841, they were rediscovered in very poor condition in Boussac. They were purchased and restored in 1882 by the French government for the Musée de Cluny in Paris (now the Musée National du Moyen Âge), where they still hang today. Among other things, the tapestries represent the five senses. Each tapestry is usually referred to by the sense it depicts: Taste, Touch, Smell, Sound and Sight. The sixth – which either introduces or concludes the series – is known as À Mon Seul Désir (To My One Desire), for the words woven into it.
Cover
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Claude swallowed. ‘Clove. For my tooth.’
‘You should be chewing mint – that’s much better for toothache.’
