Unicorn+Symbolism


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Our assignment: We are preparing a script for a recorded tour guide focusing on symbolism in the Unicorn Tapestries. We have to be sure to include a brief description of The Unicorn Tapestries and the significance of the unicorn in medieval Europe. Based on your explorations of the Metropolitan Museum website, please add some copy (text) to the outline below. If you see a section is blank, it might be particularly helpful to fill that part in. If you want to add or modify sections that have already been written, please feel free to do so. You can also insert additional images if you think it appropriate.

A unicorn (from Latin unus 'one' and corn 'horn') is a legendary creature. The traditional unicorn has a billy-goat beard, a lion's tail and cloven hooves - these distinguish it from a horse. It is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary, but always mysteriously beautiful. Its single horn was said to neutralize poison. || || Scholars who support the idea that the tapestries were designed to celebrate a marriage sustain that the unicorn in captivity symblizes a captured bridegroom, while those seeking religious meaning sustain the unicorn is Christ, who surrended his divine nature and became human through Virgin Mary. || Two letters, A and E, can be seen, one at each side of the tree. They symbolize the patrons. || || The color of the unicorn is white. It symbolizes purity. || There is the valiant and noble liona and the stag. The hounds are helping the hunters. || || The hunters seem to kill the unicorn, yet in the last scene it is alive again and looks happy even if it is captured. || The hunters use spears but they cannot kill the unicorn. The unicorn can only be tamed by a virgin maid when she uses her charms to entrap it. || || White roses symbolize the maid's virginity and red roses symbolize her charity and compassion. || The horn has the powers of purification. || || The unicorn is captured, chained to a pomegranate tree, surrounded by a fence, in a field of flowers. || There are red stains on its flanks, but they are not blood. They are pomegranate juice dripping from the tree above. Pomegranages symbolize fertility. || ||
 * 1. What is the unicorn?
 * [[image:http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Unicorn/images/unic_center.jpg width="123" height="174" align="center"]] || 2. The Unicorn in Captivity and what it symbolizes
 * 3. The Unicorn at Bay and the patrons of the unicorn tapestries (can you find the symbols of the patrons?)
 * [[image:http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Unicorn/images/U2_overview.jpg width="223" height="167" align="center"]] || 4. The unicorn and purity (What’s the symbol of purity in this tapestry? What is it about this that reminds us of purity?)
 * 5. The symbolism of other animals (What creatures were praised by medieval writers? And why were they praised? What did they symbolize?)
 * The stag, a destroyer of dangerous serpents, sets lessons for Christians in the ways he protects his kind against the hazards of life. || [[image:http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Unicorn/images/U2-stag.jpg width="154" height="115" align="center"]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Unicorn/images/U3-leaps-the-stream.jpg width="239" height="179" align="center"]] || 6. Good and evil (How does the tale of the unicorn symbolize the victory of good over evil?)
 * 7. Hunting the unicorn (What can the hunters use to defeat the unicorn? What is their powerful weapon against the unicorn?)
 * [[image:http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Unicorn/images/U5_overall.jpg width="249" height="187" align="center"]] || 8. Symbolism of flowers (What do the colors of flowers in two fragments of a unicorn tapestry from South Netherlands stand for?)
 * 9. The unicorn horn (Of what value was the magic horn of the unicorn? What did the horn symbolize?)
 * [[image:http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Unicorn/images/U7-overall-.jpg width="260" height="196" align="center"]] || 10. After the hunt (What happens to the unicorn in the end? What does this ending symbolize?)
 * 11. A mystery? (What is dripping on the unicorn’s back? What does this represent?)