The lady and the unicorn

The commissioner of the tapestries was the Le Viste family, an upwardly mobile family from the city of Lyons – and their principal purpose was to display the Le Viste coat of arms.

Red with a blue band and three silver moons rising, the arms can be seen throughout the tapestries on pennants, standards, shields, capes and lances.

By the end of the 1400s, the Le Vistes held key court positions as lawyers and jurists. Like many with power but not of noble birth, they cultivated associations with chivalry. Their use of the unicorn was also probably a visual pun on the family name: in old French ‘viste’ meant ‘swift’ and the unicorn was said to be the swiftest of all animals.

Produced at a time when a new aspirational class of nobles was emerging in France, the luxurious tapestries were either a symbol of social status, or a betrothal gift.

While it seems beyond doubt the tapestries were commissioned by a Le Viste, it is not known which Le Viste was responsible. It may have been Jean IV who commissioned them between 1480 and 1500 to indicate his new status working for the Parliament of Paris, and later the king.

Or some propose Jean’s younger cousin Antoine II – who succeeded Jean as head of the family in 1500 – as the commissioner of a gift to his bride-to be Jacqueline Raguier. The latter helps support a reading of the inscription in the 'sixth’ tapestry – 'Mon seul désir’ – as
bracketed by the couple’s initials, A and I (old French for J). A present to his 'sole desire’?

Either way, the heraldic display on the tapestries was the first use of the new colours and patterns of the Le Viste arms (red, with three silver crescents on a diagonal band of blue).