Friday, July 22, 2011

The Lady And The Unicorn (Taste) -- My Tapestry from Ghent, Belgium

 The Lady and the Unicorn is the modern title given to a series of six tapestries woven in Flanders of wool and silk, from designs ("cartoons") drawn in Paris in the late fifteenth century ...Five of the tapestries are commonly interpreted as depicting the five senses – taste, hearing, sight, smell, and touch...
Taste
The lady is taking sweets from a dish held by a maidservant. Her eyes are on a parakeet on her upheld left hand. The lion and the unicorn are both standing on their hind legs reaching up to pennants that frame the lady on either side. The monkey is at her feet, eating one of the sweetmeats.  (Wikipedia)
Click here  to see a full description of the series with on Wikipedia



I bought my tapestry in August 2010, when I went to the Leonard Cohen concerts in Ghent (Gent) Belgium,

I had been looking for months for an art element to hang over my bed in my new apartment, which I named Casa Goodenough.   I don't like headboards (don't know why).  In Toronto, I hung an art rug on the wall over my bed.

When I wandered around the ancient cobblestone streets near my hotel, I dropped into a tapestry store and fell in love with a reproduction of one of my favourite medieval legends, "The Lady And The Unicorn".  As this was an original art piece, it came with a letter of authenticity making it exempt from duty when I returned home.

The nicest tapestry rod I could find for a reasonable price was a Martha Stewart Living product at Home Depot. She does have a keen eye after all. The maintenance guys in my building were kind enough to hang it for me.


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My tapestry has a blue tent in the background which I like better.

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