blog #2: Unicorns- 15th century and Harry Potter & Tapestries/Embroidery

In Chapter 18: 15th century Art in Northern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula, there was an art piece called Unicorn Found at the Fountain. It is part of the Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries series and made of wool, silk and silver threads. The unicorn is a symbol of the Incarnartion of Christ and a metaphor of romantic love. As still today, paintings, tapestries, practically all works of art have symbollism and deeper meaning. In the 15th century, when the Christian religion was popular, religious hidden symbols were common. Now days, for individual works of art, it tends to be more personal- within the artists' own unique perspective.

Symbollism is pretty much universal! It is seen everywhere even if we may not realize it. (movies, logos, books, flags) In the tapestry above, the unicorn captured by the Virgin mary represents Christ. The animals represent certain qualities that are still used today. (Dogs- fidelity, lions-power) In the medieval bestiary- which is an encyclopedia of real & imaginary animals, an unicorn's horn was believed to be an antidote for poison.
After i read this, I thought of Harry Potter! In Harry Potter, unicorns blood, like medieval beliefs of unicorn's horn, were believed to provide magical powers. In the Harry Potter novel , when one drinks the blood of a unicorn, though it helps keep one alive, whoever drank it, will live a half-life, a cursed life. I remember a quite vivid scene in the movie, where Harry is in the forest at night & finds a dead unicorn. The only one who would risk living a cursed life is one who is at utter desperation to stay alive- Voldemort.


As for the actual technique of tapestries, I found to be quite interesting; soo different from the usual artworks. Tapestries -made by threads & people who sew together the image- are very common in Vietnam. I've never been to Vietnam before, but I've seen many framed art pieces, that surprisingly are made from THREAD! I even have one of pink & white flowers hanging on the living room wall. My aunt has one of a scenary by the water with boats, sunset & people wearing the traditional sun hats. (& the straw houses that are in the water held up by wooden sticks- don't know what they are called) Being a Vietnamese girl myself, reading about the tapestries was quite personal, since it was something I could reflect upon. I grew up wearing silk pajamas with images of peacocks or a princess playing a harp sewed upon it. My mom has told me that these embroidery art pieces (the framed artworks, not sure about the pjs) are sewed by HAND! These creators must have some serious sewing skills and patience, which I could never acquire. 15th century or even now, to make art by a single thread one at a time, requires patience, hard work, and most importantly, the desire to create such a piece.
made of thread, purely by handmade sewing
http://vietnameseartwork.com/itemList.aspx?GroupID=25