Geneviève de Nanterre looked over at me. ‘Bien sûr,’ she cried brightly, holding out a hand and stepping over so that she stood between me and Béatrice. ‘Nicolas des Innocents, how could I have forgotten you? Béatrice has told me she's tired of service and would prefer the life of an artist's wife. Wouldn't you, Béatrice?’
Béatrice nodded.
‘Of course it's not for me to arrange, as Béatrice is my daughter's lady now. She must decide. What do you think, Claude — will you release Béatrice from service to you so that she may marry Nicolas des Innocents?’
Claude looked at her mother and then at me, her eyes bright with tears. We were both of us being punished.
‘Claude and I will be sorry to lose you, Béatrice,’ Geneviève de Nanterre added. ‘But my daughter will give her permission, won't you, Claude?’
After a moment Claude gave a little shrug. ‘I will, Maman. As you wish.’ She did not look at me as her mother took Béatrice's hand and slipped it into mine, but fastened her eyes on the tapestry of Taste.
Myself, I did not look at the tapestries with the Ladies gazing down from their walls, nor at the nobles eating and drinking and laughing and dancing. I did not need to look at them to know that they would all be smiling.
EPILOGUE
Nicolas des Innocents was commissioned to design a stained glass window for Notre Dame de Paris. He had three more children, none of them with Béatrice.
Claude Le Viste and Geoffroy de Balzac had no children. After he died in 1510 she married Jean de Chabannes. They also had no children. After her death the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries passed on to the family of her second husband.
Nicolette was Claude Le Viste's lady-in-waiting all her life.
Jean Le Viste died in 1501. After his death Geneviève de Nanterre entered the convent at Chelles.
Philippe and Aliénor had three more boys. The first son, Etienne, and the youngest became painters, while the other two became weavers.
Georges was offered several other commissions to weave unicorns. He turned them down. ‘Too much trouble,’ he said to Christine.
Christine wove a small millefleur tapestry for her daughter's belated trousseau. She did not weave for the workshop again.
Léon Le Vieux died in his own bed, his wife and children at his side.
NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This story is fiction, yet based on sensible suppositions concerning the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. It is not certain which member of the Le Viste family the tapestries were actually commissioned by, nor why they were made, nor exactly when - though the Ladies' clothes and the weaving techniques indicate they were probably woven towards the end of the fifteenth century. Jean Le Viste was the only male who had the right to display the family coat of arms at that time. Nor do we know who made them, though the skill and techniques displayed indicate the workshop would have been northern, possibly in Brussels, where millefleurs were a speciality at that time.
For all their expense and their glorif Ication of the Le Viste coat of arms, the tapestries did not remain in the Le Viste family for long - on Claude's death (some time before 1544) they probably passed to another branch of the Le Viste family. By 1660 they had been hung in a château at Boussac in central France. They were rediscovered there in 1841 by Prosper Mérimée, inspector of historical monuments. He found them in poor condition, for they had been gnawed at by rats and in some places cut up - apparently people in neighbouring villages used parts of them as tablecloths and curtains. The writer Georges Sand soon became their champion, writing about them in articles, novels and her journal. In 1882 the French government bought the tapestries for the Musée de Cluny (now the Musée National du Moyen ge) in Paris - where they still hang, restored and in a specially appointed room.
I have tried to be faithful to what little is known about the tapestries, but on more general matters I have taken liberties here and there, as novelists always do - in using modern French throughout, and perhaps most of all in having the Brussels folk speak French when they quite likely would have spoken Flemish among themselves, if not to visitors.
There are many sources on late medieval/Renaissance France, and on medieval life in general. One of the most entertaining is Life on a Mediaeval Barony by William S. Davis (1923). Books that helped me on more specif Ic topics include: La Tapisserie au Moyen ge by Fabienne Joubert (2000); Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnif Icence, edited by Thomas P. Campbell (2002); The Lady and the Unicorn by Alain Erlande-Brandenburg (1991); The Unicorn Tapestries by Margaret B. Freeman (1976); Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Adolfo Salvatore Cavallo (1993); The Oak King, the Holly King, and the Unicorn: The Myths and Symbolism of the Unicorn Tapestries by John Williamson (1986); Sur la terre comme au ciel: Jardins d'Occident à la fin du Moyen ge, edited by Élisabeth Antoine (2002); Le Château d'Arcy et ses seigneurs by A. et C.-M. Fleury (1917).
In addition, I would like to thank Elisabeth Antoine at the Musée National du Moyen ge in Paris; Philip Sanderson, Katharine Swailes, and especially Caron Penney in the Tapestry Studio at West Dean College in Sussex - they are recreating another famous unicorn tapestry and showed me first hand how medieval tapestries were woven; Lindsey Young; Sally Dormer; Katie Espiner; also Susan Watt and Carole Baron, Jonny Geller and Deborah Schneider.
Praise
‘A beautifully written tale, I could not put it down … an exquisite, moving and convincing story, drawing realistic and rounded characters who each tell their aspect of the tale … This is not just a novel about the creation of a work of art, but a tale of ambition, lust, betrayal and heartbreak … a compelling and enormously enjoyable work.’
Evening Standard
‘The strongest scenes in Tracy Chevalier's charming new novel concern the lives of the craftsmen in late 15th-century Brussels weaving the tapestries … the novel neatly presents a weave of first-person narrative voices, each speaker creating a new strip of plot … Nicolas functions as a sort of running stitch, tying the various stories together, looping back and forth between Paris and Belgium, one woman and another. Eventually, he himself is caught, and stitched in to a woman's design.’
The Times
‘Chevalier's gift is not limited to undercover education and the creation of lively characters. What she does best is to study a famous work of art with the eyes of a bright, inquisitive child, teasing out a story that might lie behind it. The marvellously enigmatic medieval tapestries of her title are a gift to this, her own brand of historical fiction.’
Independent on Sunday
‘Cartoonists, weavers, dyers, financiers, even those who trim the hem, all add a dash of their own desires to the mix. Thus when the tapestry is unrolled there shimmers beneath its brilliant surface another shadowy net of threads, weaving together the loves and longings of all involved … The Lady and the Unicorn will perhaps eclipse Pearl Earring … Her characters are not tossed about by large well-documented events; it is the machinations of their inner worlds that make the story and then drive the plot. Yet there is no doubt that the past is a beautiful and somehow apt surround for her tales of human nature, in much the same way that antique settings can add a golden gloss to jewels.’
Guardian
‘Chevalier sets her imagination free to create a story peopled by the artists, weavers and the women whose likenesses appear in the tapestry … an engaging and enjoyable read.’
Daily Mail
‘Seductions, betrayals, intrigues and small tragedies abound in this rich tale, in which characters are threads woven together against the central canvas, crossing and meeting with more or less intimacy, leaving more or less of themselves in the grand design.’
Daily Telegraph
‘Chevalier is highly adept at atmosphere and story-telling. Out of the few facts known about the famous tapestries of the title, she has conjured first-person narratives from those whose lives were bound up in their creation.’
Time Out
‘Chevalie
r weaves another absorbing story.’
The Tablet
‘Teems with seduction and adventure.’
Vogue
‘Chevalier has a keen eye for period detail and her vocabulary, smells, noises and visions evoke a very atmospheric Paris at the turn of the fifteenth century. Readers will look at tapestries with a new insight and a keener eye … all in all, a zesty read.’
Irish Examiner
‘It's a fascinating story, not least because of the beautifully enigmatic work at its heart, and Chevalier tells it well, vividly recreating the world of art in Renaissance-era France.’
Sunday Tribune
‘I started in a state of puzzled ignorance about this beautiful and inaccessible work of art, and now find myself loving it. For this, I owe Tracy Chevalier my thanks.’
Country Life
‘Chevalier weaves a series of stories to beguile and entertain us.’
Sunday Times
‘What makes the tale enthralling are the details Chevalier offers about the social customs of the time … the genuine drama Chevalier orchestrates as the weavers race to complete the tapestries, and the deft way she herself weaves together each strand, results in a work of genuine power and beauty.’
Publishers Weekly
‘Chevalier is too careful and thoughtful a writer to paint by numbers. Although the premise of The Lady and the Unicorn superficially resembles that of Girl with a Pearl Earring, the more important similarity lies in their author's ability to populate a period setting with subtly rendered, surprisingly complex characters.’
New York Times
‘Marvellously imagined and sharply constructed … a fascinating portrait of the intersection of life and art.’
Kirkus Reviews
Also by Tracy Chevalier
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Falling Angels
The Virgin Blue
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
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Copyright © Tracy Chevalier 2003
Tracy Chevalier asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Set in Postscript Linotype Giovanni with Spectrum display by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
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EPub Edition © 2003 ISBN: 9780007324330
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Tracy Chevalier, The Lady and the Unicorn
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