In 1841 Prosper Mérimée, the French man of letters and conservator of historical monuments, came across an astounding cycle of six Flemish tapestries wasting away on the walls of Boussac castle in the Limousin region of France.
Sumptuously woven in wool and silk, five of these fifteenth-century works depict symbolic representations of the five senses, with the sixth obscure in meaning but very likely evocative of love as a theme.
Remarkably, each tapestry features a lion, a noblewoman and a unicorn; considered one of the finest European works of art dating from the Middle Ages, the cycle has come to be known as The Lady and the Unicorn (La dame à la licorne), and is one of the jewels in the collection of the Musée de Cluny (Musée du Moyen-Âge) in Paris.
