The Art of Taste (and Breaking the Rules)
The Lion of Atenveldt, which is given only once per reign.
If you would like to try your hand at painting this, I have created the linework, below.
This image I created draws inspiration from the famous The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, masterfully executed in the flower-dense millefleur style. Each piece in this historic series tackles one of the five senses. This specific tribute honors "Taste"—an apt title, given that the scene features a lion aggressively sticking out its tongue, a lady delicately snagging a snack from a bowl, and a rogue monkey casually munching in the foreground.
While my previous post on the "Smell" tapestry dug into what millefleur meant for medieval daily life, today we are tackling a bigger mystery: who exactly had the exquisite taste (and massive budget) to commission these masterpieces?
The Clues in the Weaving
The Family Crest: The flags proudly display the heraldry of the Le Viste family.
A Medieval Fashion Faux Pas: Interestingly, their coat of arms flagrantly violates French heraldic rules. It breaks the foundational "rule of tincture" by superimposing color directly onto color (specifically, red on blue). It turns out that even in the 15th century, the wealthy loved a good design violation.
The Identity Crisis: While we know the family name, historians are still locked in a polite academic brawl over the exact patron. Was it Jean IV le Viste—a high-flying parliament lawyer and advisor to King Charles VIII—or his younger cousin, Antoine II le Viste?
The Paper Trail
Jean IV ultimately left the tapestries to his eldest daughter, Claude, in his will. If you fancy a trip to Paris, the original will and supporting documents are safely housed in the French National Archives (Archives nationales) within the Minutier central des notaires. There are no known documents showing who commissioned or created these tapestries.
Deep Dives and Honorable Mentions
For the Academics: Check out the wonderfully thorough 2019 paper by A.-S. Laruelle, cited in the sources below. You will need to translate from French.
For the Storytellers: If you prefer your history with a side of romance and drama, Tracy Chevalier’s 2003 historical fiction novel, The Lady and the Unicorn, spins a fantastic yarn about how these threads came together.
Centuries later, this series continues to spark the imagination. Like all truly great art, these pieces refuse to give up all their secrets, continuing to tantalize and mock our modern curiosity.
Sources:
Laruelle, A.-S. (2019, September 29). “Review: P. Foutakis. A la lumière des manuscrits Le Viste, famille de La Dame à la licorne” in Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 3 (Fall 2017), pp. 1076-1078. Academia.Edu. https://www.academia.edu/40471968/_review_p_foutakis_a_la_lumi%c3%a8re_des_manuscrits_le_viste_famille_de_la_dame_%c3%a0_la_licorne_in_renaissance_quarterly_vol_70_no_3_fall_2017_pp_1076_1078
Vaivre, J.-B. de. (1984). Messire Jehan Le Viste, chevalier, seigneur d'Arcy, et sa tenture au lion et à la licorne. Bulletin Monumental, 142(4), 397–434. https://doi.org/10.3406/bulmo.1984.6427
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