The New Arcadia Review :: Articles :: Is There A Sixth Sense in The Lady and The Unicorn Tapestries

The New Arcadia Review :: Articles :: Is there a Sixth Sense in the Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries?
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Hosting the Stranger

Volume 4 ~ 2011
Table of Contents
Is there a Sixth Sense in the Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries?

Anne Davenport
To Marvi
What did our medieval forebears (those strangers for whom we feel a mixture of hostility and regret) have
to say about hosting the stranger? In medieval tapestries, the most visible stranger, often a mythical
animal, may serve as a playful lure designed to initiate the viewer into the far greater strangeness of his
own soul. Unicorn-like, human freedom cannot be circumscribed. It comes from a mythical elsewhere and
behaves mythically, as a causa sui. It inhabits time without belonging to it. It dwells wherever a stranger
is hosted, but suffers no gravitational pull, forever replenished. Mythical to itself, strange,
incomprehensible, the human soul must, above all, renounce its own founding myths in order to welcome
itself as what is impossible to itself. Is this the task of a sixth sense? 1I thank Tom Epstein and Kascha
Semonovitch for their careful review and helpful comments.
To welcome history is to expose ourselves to selves that are stranger than fiction. Woven of silk and wool,
combining warmth and luster, the six Unicorn tapestries that were transferred to the Paris Cluny Museum
from the moldy chteau de Boussac in the late XIXth century fascinate us by their beauty but also their
mystery. Who designed them? Where were they executed? For what purpose? With what intention? We
sense that they communicate an urgent but lost meaning, perhaps even a paradox related to desire. Why,
for example, if the tapestries depict the five senses, does the protagonist in the tapestry depicting Taste
taste nothing?
Scholars believe that the tapestries were commissioned in the late XVth century by a member of the Le
Viste family, most likely by the successful magistrate Jean IV Le Viste, perhaps to mark his advent as
head of the family in 1484 or perhaps to celebrate his appointment as President of the Court of Aids in
14892See Alain Erlande-Brandebourg (Conservateur au Muse de Cluny) La Dame la Licorne (Paris:
Editions de la Runion des Muses Nationaux, 1978).. With regard to their content, a variety of
hypotheses has been put forth. The standard view is that the tapestries depict the five senses, to which is
added a sixth sense, possibly moral judgment, liberum arbitrium3See A. F. Kendrick, "Quelques
http://www.bc.edu/publications/newarcadia/archives/4/is_there_a_sixth_sense/
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remarques sur les tapisseries de la Dame la Licorne du Muse de Cluny," Actes du Congrs d'Histoire
de l'Art, III, Paris, 1924, p. 662.. Elaborating on this interpretation, Michel Serres has argued that the sixth
sense is the internal sense" that marks the beginning of personal identity and language.4See Michel
Serres, Les Cinq Sens (Paris: Grasset, 1985), pp. 52--60. Anna Nilsn, in turn, has argued that the theme
of the five senses is combined with the eternal human struggle between moral ideals (the unicorn) and
bodily inclinations (the lion)." Nilsn thus denies that any sixth sense is depicted, interpreting the panel
with the inscribed pavillion to introduce the theme of moral combat, not to close the cycle.5See Anna
Nilsn, "The Lady with the Unicorn. On Earthly Desire and Spiritual Purity" in Studies in Art History 16,
eds. Marja Terttu Knapas and Asa Ringbom (Gummerus Kirjapaino Jyvaskyla, Finland, 1995) pp. 213-235. The far-fetched interpretation that the tapestries depict the Virgin Mary likewise does away with the
idea of a sixth sense,6See Phyllis Ackerman, ``The Lady and the Unicorn," The Burlington Magazine for
Connoisseurs, Vol. 66, No. 382 (Jan., 1935), pp. 35--36. as does Kristina Gourlay's interpretation that the
tapestries depict a courtly romance and were commissioned as a wedding present.7See Kristina E.
Gourlay, ``La Dame La Licorne: A Reinterpretation," Gazette des Beaux--Arts, 139 (1997), pp. 47--72.
The most severe blow against the idea of a sixth sense, however, came with Marie-Elizabeth Bruel's
compelling evidence that the tapestries represent, not the five senses plus a sixth sense, but six courtly
virtues drawn from the XIIIth century allegorical poem on the Art of Love, the Roman de la Rose by
Guillaume de Lorris.8See Marie--Elisabeth Bruel, ``Les tapisseries de La Dame la Licorne, une
reprsentation des vertus allgoriques du Roman de la Rose," Gazette des Beaux--Arts, Dcembre 2000,
pp. 215--232. Started by Guillaume de Lorris circa 1230, the poem was continued in a more naturalistic
vein by Jean de Meun around 1275. On the difference between the two authors, see Denis de Rougemont,
L' Amour et l'occident (Paris: Plon, 1972) p. 192. Is the hypothesis of a sixth sense thus finally put to rest?
A problem with Bruel's otherwise solid argument is that she dismisses the sumptuous night-blue pavillion
inscribed with A Mon Seul Dsir as a background element without special iconographic importance. Since
the tapestries, she argues, were used not only to furnish a room of the Le Viste residence but also to adorn
outside walls during special public festivities, the night-blue pavillion merely publicizes the high status of
le Viste family.9M.--E. Bruel, Les Tapisseries de La Dame la Licorne," p. 217: ``Le pavillon et ses
tenants n'ont donc rien voir avec la scne plaque devant." Bruel explains away the inscription on the
pavillion as the beginning of a family motto that wraps around the tent, sufficiently well-known to XVth
century viewers to be recognized.10Ibid.
Is there really no spiritual dimension to the tapestries? Are the six scenes wholly as profane as Bruel
insists? I want to suggest that the tapestries start with six courtly virtues from the Roman de la Rose, but
then deliberately connect these virtues one by one to the five senses in order to transform the profane
ethos of courtly love promoted by Guillaume de Lorris into a higher spiritual ethos closely inspired by the
teaching of Jean Gerson. Indeed Gerson himself, in a vernacular treatise on the contemplative life, argues
that courtly love is an image of spiritual perfection. On this new hypothesis, the idea of a sixth sense is
restored, connected to the motto A Mon Seul Dsir and identified with the highest level of Gerson's
mystical theology.
Jean Gerson, who was made chancellor of the University of Paris in 1395, was not only the most
prominent theologian in Paris in the first quarter of the 15th century, but was politically active in court
circles where members of the Le Viste family occupied important positions. Like the Le Viste family,
moreover, Gerson had close ties to the city of Lyons, where he died in 1429, venerated locally as a saint.
His younger brother, abbot of the Celestine monastery of Lyons where Gerson died, tirelessly promoted
Gerson's teaching. By the end of the XVth century, Gerson's Complete Works had undergone no fewer
than five editions.11See Jean--Luc Solre, ``Jean Gerson," Dictionnaire du Moyen ge, eds. Claude
Gauvard, Alain de Libera et Michel Zink (Paris: PUF, 2002), pp. 762--764. Solre describes Gerson as
`òne of the most famous theologians and preachers of the end of the Middle Ages."
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Gerson's chief project, closely tied to his Conciliarism and to the new spirit of humanism pioneered by
Petrarch, was to make mystical theology accessible to laymen and laywomen, precisely in the hope of
counteracting the profane influence of courtly authors12See Christine de Pisan, Jean Gerson, Jean de
Montreuil, Gontier et Pierre Col, Le Dbat sur le Roman de la Rose, d. E. Hickes (Paris: Champion,
1977). . Both in his French vernacular writings such as La Montagne de contemplation and La Mendicit
spirituelle and in his Latin treatises such as De mystica theologia, Gerson sought to popularize mystical
theology without debasing it to simplify its schematic structure without diminishing its power or the
effort required to practice it. Gerson everywhere insists that mystical theology is not reserved for the
clergy (Clergie n'est mie du tout neccessaire (sic) a genz contemplatifs") but he also warns that worldly
pleasure and courtly love must first be renounced13See Marie--Josephe Pinet, La Montagne de
Contemplation, La Mendicit Spirituelle de Jehan Gerson (Lyon: Bosc, 1927), titles of Chapters II and X,
pp. 17--18. . In one of his last works, written in the vernacular from the Celestine monastery of Lyons,
Gerson describes the various mutations" ( diverses mutacions) that transform a worldly heart (Cuer
Mondain) into a spiritual heart.14See Canticordum commentaire par Isabelle Fabre (Genve, CH.: Droz,
2005), p. 480.
Why might a prosperous magistrate like Jean (IV) Le Viste, standard-bearer of a rapidly emerging
bourgeois family active in both Lyons and Paris, have commissioned a cycle of tapestries aimed at
depicting the mutation of profane virtues from the Roman de la Rose into the spiritual virtues of Gerson's
Theologia mistica? In 1428, when Gerson was still living and diffusing his teachings from the Celestine
monastery of Lyons, Jean (IV) Le Viste's grandfather and namesake, Jean (II) Le Viste, one of the richest
men of Lyons and a lawyer who acted as a close adviser to both the Duke of Bourbon and Charles VI,
willed a weaving adorned with the Le Viste coat of arms to the Celestine monastery, to be used for the
high altar, and stipulated that the Le Viste family mansion should go to the Celestines in the absence of Le
Viste heirs15See Genevive Souchal, "`Messeigneurs Les Vistes' et `la Dame la Licorne'", Bibliothque
de l'cole des chartes, 1983, Vol. 141, no. 2, p. 218. . The family, in short, had a long-standing and very
personal connection to the monastery from which Gerson's fame radiated. It seems reasonable to suggest
that, by associating himself and the Le Viste family with Gerson's project of reforming Christian mores,
Jean (IV) Le Viste may have wished to anchor his own worldly success in spiritual practices, forestalling
criticism and envy, but also promoting a new religious humanism to replace the increasingly obsolete,
archaic values of the old feudal nobility.16 Symbolically, the Hundred Years War played an important role
in revealing the shortcomings of the static, magico-superstitious mindset of the feudal nobility as the
English longbow incapacitated armored knights on the battlefield. See, e.g., Joel Meyniel, Archers et
arbaletriers de la Guerre de cent ans (1337--1453) (Saint Egrve: Editions Emotion primitive, 2006). On
Gerson's project of cultivating lay piety, in turn, see Dorothy Catherine Brown, Pastor and Laity in the
Theology of Jean Gerson (Cambridge, UK.: Cambridge U. Press, 1987).
Taste
In the tapestry depicting Taste, the Lady reaches out to a chalice-like dish presented to her by her
maidservant. Is she about to pick a sweet and taste it? A bird, perched on her left hand, clutches a piece of
the white candy to its breast, no doubt a gift from the Lady. In the foreground, a monkey lifts a red berry
to its mouth. Sitting on the folds of the Lady's dress, a lapdog wearing a jewelled collar looks up at her
eagerly, hoping to receive a treat. So far, so courtly: the lap dog is a gift from the suitor to his Lady,
symbol of fidelity, and the elegant parrot is a symbol of the suitor himself. The verdure, in turn, with its
mille fleurs and exotic fauna, represents the pleasure garden where the courtly virtues are found.17See Le
Roman de la Rose par Guillaume de Lorris et Jean de Meung, ed. Ernest Langlois (Paris, 1920), II, p. 31,
line 590, to p. 38, line 726. See also The Romance of the Rose, trans. Frances Horgan (Oxford and New
York: Oxford U. Press, 1994), pp. 11--12: `Ì truly believed myself to be in the earthly paradise, for the
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place was so beautiful that it seemed quite ethereal." The lion, however, watches the Lady greedily, its
jaws open, its tongue voracious. The courtly pleasure garden (Deduit's orchard) is subtly disrupted by the
hint of a wilder, less innocent Nature. Animal creation is depicted as vibrant with appetite, either prone to
gratify itself impulsively (the monkey) or to seek gratification from an external source, more or less
ruthlessly.
1. The Lady and the Unicorn, Taste

In sharp contrast to the lion, the unicorn addresses the viewer directly with its gaze, as though welcoming
an outside witness. A witness to what? The Lady is frozen in a suspended gesture. The choice to taste or
not to taste, to give or not to give, is hers. The Spirit blows elegantly in her veil, marking her
iconographically as an allegory of the virtue of Franchise, which is to say nobility of character."
Franchise is the distinctive hallmark of free persons, as opposed to vilenie, baseness, which is associated
with serfs (vilains).18M.--E. Bruel identified Franchise based on two chief elements, namely the Lady's
dress ("souquenille") and floating veil. See "Les Tapisseries de La Dame La Licorne," pp. 219--221. See
also The Romance of the Rose, p. 19: "Generosity of Spirit was nicely dressed, for no dress suits a maiden
so well as a sorquenie; a woman looks daintier and more elegant in a sorquenie than in a tunic."
What possible connection is there between Franchise and the sensory faculty of Taste? By preparing
herself to taste, or not, Franchise discovers that nobility of character stems precisely from the power to
abstain the power to interrupt the whole spontaneity of material appetite through the exercise of free
agency. The maidservant inflects her knee in recognition of the soul's spiritual dignity. Roses bloom on
the trellis behind Franchise, marking the place where she stands as a place franche, a place of rational
autonomy within the cosmic island an enclosed garden" where the soul (my sister, my spouse") bursts
upon the unfathomable idea of its freedom. Taste, which requires a deliberate gesture to insert a foreign
substance into the mouth, initiates the soul into its power of free volition the power to regulate desire, to
abstain from devouring, and thus the capacity to act nobly, freely, compassionately, rather than basely and
under compulsion. The courtly virtue of Franchise thus implies the higher and more fundamental spiritual
virtue of Liberum Arbitrium, personified by Jean Gerson as La Franche Volont.19See Louis Mourin,
Jean Gerson, prdicateur franais (Bruge: De Tempel, 1952), p. 442. In our tapestry, Franche Volont
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stands her ground mid-way between two opposing forces: natural appetite, symbolized by the lion's
predatory teeth, tongue, and tempestuous mantle, and pure reason, symbolized by the unicorn's ivory body
and billowing mantle, ready to take flight. Franchise, transformed by self-awareness (cogitatio) into
moral freedom, will have to learn to discern what to welcome, what to reject, what to give, what to
withold. How?
Hearing
The tapestry depicting the courtly virtue of Liesse (Joy) associates Joy with Hearing. Why is Liesse
immobilized, attentive to her musical instrument, rather than dancing the carole, as she does in the Roman
de la Rose?20See The Romance of the Rose, p. 13: `À lady was singing to them, whose name was Joy. ..
Singing suited her wonderfully, for her voice was clear and pure, and she... knew well how to move her
body when dancing. It was her habit always and everywhere to be the first to sing, for singing was her
favorite occupation." The tapestry implies that the soul must rise above what is given passively to natural
sense. The soul must enlist its faculty of hearing to train itself to grasp in a more abstract manner the
rules of arts and sciences" or so at least Gerson argued to an emerging class of skilled burghers,
convinced that the art of music, above all other arts, promotes sublimation.21See Joyce L. Irwin, "The
Mystical Music of Jean Gerson," Early Music History, Vol. 1 (1981), pp. 187--201; and Jean Gerson, Sur
la Thology mystique, ed. Marc Vial (Paris: Vrin, 2008) p. 140: "intelligentes abstractius regulas artium et
scientiarum." Liesse must focus her attention on both producing and hearing the music of the spheres the
divine logos that pervades creation but remains inaudible until human artistry labors to intervene as
mediator.
2. The Lady and the Unicorn, Hearing
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In discussing contemplative theology, Gerson explains that Meditatio and music are analogous. Both
meditation and music strive to regulate and calm bestial appetites" by developing a science of limits,
which brings raw impulses, sounds, colors and gestures under the rule of rational composition.22 See Jean
Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 122. According to Gerson, Orpheus represents the power of
Meditation. Orpheus charms brute instincts with his lyre and strives, by means of music, to rescue the
intellect (Eurydice) from the captivating underworld of profane sensualism.23Jean Gerson, Sur la
thologie mystique, p. 122. Eurydice, in turn, is the faculty of intellect that is given to human beings for
the purpose of contemplating higher things."24Ibid: "Accomodatius Euridicem accipiamus vim
intellectualem datam homini ad considerationem supernorum." Without Orpheus's lyre calling it to
rational joy, the intellect would wander forever among profane pleasures.
The focus of the tapestry depicting Hearing is Liesse's marvelous concentration, which spreads out to the
garden and its inhabitants. Fox and hound refrain from tormenting a nearby rabbit. The lion is appeased,
its jaws closed, its eyes bewildered by an unfamiliar experience. The unicorn is bathed in music as though
in baptismal waves. The Lady's finely-crafted harmonium, significantly, serves now as a means to
connect, even to reconcile, our two warring opposites, lion and unicorn, telluric energy and abstractive
purity, appetite and reason, matter and spirit. Liesse, transformed into Gersonian Meditatio, uplifts all of
creation. The maidservant assists Meditatio by taking charge of the mechanical aspects of the instrument
perhaps alluding to philosophy's role as helpmate to theology. By extension, Liesse, profane Joy, assists
Meditatio by imbuing rational effort with a solemn but deeply rewarding vitality.
Sight
3. The Lady and the Unicorn, Sight

The mind is now sufficiently pure to see. Speculative theology, Gerson explains, ascends through three
consecutive steps. It starts with rational self-discovery (cogitatio), develops through the effort of focused
meditation (meditatio) and culminates in contemplation (contemplatio).25See Jean Gerson, Sur la thology
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mystique, p. 128. Symbolically, the Lady is seated, hosting the unicorn on her lap and holding a mirror up
to it. At a first level, she represents Oiseuse, Idleness, who invites the poet into the Pleasure Garden and
holds a mirror in her hand.26See The Romance of the Rose, pp. 10--11. But our Lady is Oiseuse of a more
spiritual sort than the courtly figure of the Roman de la Rose and will usher the soul into a higher garden.
Contemplation, Gerson explains, is a high mountain" where the intellect, soaring above the earthly
senses, sees all things in true perspective.27Jean Gerson, Sur la thology mystique, p. 128; "Pro cuius
manuductione palpabili ymaginemur, conformiter ad divinum Augustinum in suo De Trinitate, quod sit
aliquis supra montem excelsum valde ad cuius cacumen neque venti neque nubes attingant, sicut de
Olympo narrat Aristotiles." ( "Let us imagine, in order to guide ourselves palpably, someone situated in a
very high mountain, where neither winds nor clouds reach, as in the case of Olympus according to
Aristotle.") No longer in need of discursive reason (the maidservant), the contemplative soul intuits
rational principles and enjoys perfect sight. A paradox emerges, nicely captured by the tapestrys
ambiguity. The unicorn, as though tamed, contentedly rests its front legs on the Lady's lap and smiles at
its own reflection in the Lady's mirror, symbol of the intellect's purity but also of its problematic
reflexivity.28For the mirror as a symbol of contemplation, see Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p.
108. The soul grasps its pure intelligence indirectly, as what eludes it, as what remains radically strange,
impersonal, impartial.
Contemplation thus coincides with a first type of hospitality that both lifts itself to purity and defeats
itself. The intellect is host: Truth is the guest, candid and trusting, begging to enter. By means of pure
intelligence, the intellect immediately intuits first axioms and thus the seeds of science. Why, then, is
Contemplatio, forlorn? Truth sees itself reflected in her mirror, but she herself cannot see it, as though
robbed of her own insight, mured in her own finitude. What is lured optically" into the intellect's
hospitality is only an intentional object, the idea of God, the image of Truth, not the living God whom the
soul seeks. Contemplatio thus recognizes the ultimate vanity of her speculative effort, the futility of a
purely intellectual cognition. Her achievement is real she sees not with the fleshly eye but with the
mind's impartial eye but her grasp of first truths leaves her sterile, separate, alone with simulacra.
According to Gerson, the chief benefit of contemplative theology is to disclose that the mind's capture"
of pure Truth leaves the soul infinitely distant from God. The sterility of science reveals God's absence.
Voluptas, happiness, is not accessible to Contemplatio's science. Contemplating Truth in the mirror of
pure intelligence leaves the soul disconsolate. What will draw the soul from its finitude? From now on, the
soul must set its own effort aside and turn to the irrational wisdom and folly" of the heart.29See Jean
Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 148: ``Theologia mistica est irrationalis et amens, et slutla
sapientia."
The spirit of flowers

Just as the first tapestries, Taste, Hearing and Sight, outlined the three main steps of speculative theology,
the three remaining tapestries outline the three chief steps of mystical theology. Mystical theology starts
with amorous desire, develops through mortification and culminates in ecstatic love.30See Jean Gerson,
Sur la thologie mystique, pp. 140--3. Once again, we will see that three courtly virtues are transformed
into three spiritual virtues. According to Gerson, while speculative theology depends on the intellect and
seeks Truth, mystical theology depends on the affect and seeks to know God experientially. Mystical
theology, Gerson says, is as superior to speculative theology as the will is superior to the intellect and as
Charity is superior to Faith.31See Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 144: ``perfectior quam
theologia symbolica, sicut dilectio perfectior est cognitione, et voluntas intellectu, et caritas fide." And
although mystical theology is higher than speculative theology and provides the supreme and most perfect
knowledge of God, mystical theology is not the exclusive prerogative of monks and doctores but is
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accessible to all equally, calling laymen and women to perfection.32 See Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie
mystique, p. 157: ``Quoniam theologia mistica, licet sit suprema atque perfectissima notita, ipsa tamen
potest haberi a quolibet fideli, etiam si sit muliericula vel ydiota."
The tapestry that depicts the courtly virtue of Biaut associates Beauty, not with flowers as in the Roman
de la Rose, but with the perfume of flowers which is to say their invisible essence, and with the sense of
Smell.33See The Romance of the Rose, p. 16: "Her flesh was dewy soft and she was as simple as a bride,
lily-white, with a smooth, delicate face." To the XVth century viewer, perfume symbolized what is made
volatile and more intense by heat, radiating outward as a spiritualized substance. As Gerson explains, as
long as the soul remains contained in itself, confined by the intellect to its cognitions, the soul remains
cold, isolated, sterile. But when celestial rays act on it, love is kindled, and the soul starts to jubilate and
exult.34See Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 152: "Sic mens nondum amore calescens intra
seipsam se continet, sed spiritu fervoris amore concepto, supergreditur quodammodo smetipsam, quasi
extra se saltitans atque volitans." ("Thus when the soul is not yet heated by love, it remains contained in
itself; but when the spirit of fervor is born from love, the soul exceeds itself, as it were, as though dancing
and fluttering outside of itself.") Alchemically speaking, love volatilizes" the soul. Through the impulse
of love, the soul leaves itself and expands outward, as though dancing and fluttering."35See Ibid:
"saltitans atque volens." To explain the effects of amorous desire, Gerson appeals to the physiological
effects of sensory delight: the sensorial faculty abandons itself to a pleasant sensation and strives to find
the desired object in order to melt into it, transport itself to it, unite with it, penetrate inside it."36Jean
Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 150: "Hoc modo sensualitas aliquando se quasi capiens et se
deserens, tota nititur in rem desideratam se effundere, se transferre, se unire, ymmo illam penitus quasi
introrsus penetrare." In the special case of perfume, there is no material object to terminate sensorial
desire, since perfume exists precisely as emanation. Perfume thus symbolizes amorous desire that cannot
quench itself by its own effort but must receive fulfilment as a free gift. Perfume kindles a spiritual desire
for alterity that gives itself as alterity.
In the Roman de la Rose, Beauty weaves garments of flowers for her special friend, Love. By associating
Biaut with the perfume that emanates from flowers, the tapestry implies that the soul's new capacity to
delight in the invisible radiance of God's handiwork makes it, in turn, delightful to God. As Gerson puts it,
mystical theology is the soul's expansion towards God through amorous desire."37Jean Gerson, Sur la
thologie mystique, p. 146; "Theologia mistica est extensio animi in Deum, per amoris desiderium." Just
as perfume is a flower's quintessence, a flowers form stripped of its matter, so the soul's amorous desire
is metaphorically the soul's perfume, expanding upward to God like incense. While a monkey sitting on a
bare wood bench vainly sniffs a stolen flower, Biaut no longer desires courtly love but Love Eternal,
symbolized by the flowery crown she composes a discrete hommage to the weavers of mille fleurs,
anonymous lovers of paradise.
Touch
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4. The Lady and the Unicorn, Touch

If perfume symbolizes the soul's amorous desire and outward expansion towards God, spiritual Touch is
the mystical sense par excellence, mystical because reciprocal, reached only after a long journey of
spiritual purification and penance. The Lady, crowned with a royal diadem and dressed in a dark robe,
represents Wealth, Patrimony, Richesse. As Bruel remarks, Richesse is recognizable by the fact that she
wears a large escarboucle, which shines in the night, and her dress is adorned with precious stones reputed
to have healing properties, known as preuves, meaning trials."38See M.-E. Bruel, "Les tapisseries de la
Dame la Licorne", pp. 221--222. see The Romance of the Rose, pp. 17--18. In courtly terms, Richesse
signifies that courtly love is the heart's cure and the heart's royal treasure, compared to which everything
else is dross. Analogously, but at a higher level, spiritual Richesse signifies that love of God is the heart's
royal patrimony, compared to which everything else is bereft of value.39See Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie
mystique, p. 210: "Quietatur anima in Deo atque stabilitur, possidens in eo omnia ceteraque contempens
atque parvipendens." Spiritual Richesse thus coincides with the healing power of contrition and is none
other than perfect Mortification. Mortification not only crowns but annoints the soul, abolishing the
distance between earth and heaven. Through mortification of the senses, Gerson argues, the supernatural
love that unites the soul with God becomes accessible to all, to laymen and to the least among the
faithful.40Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 158: Simplices, qui quidem fidem habent, possunt ex
ea consurgere ad unitivum amorem cum Deo. Quomodo sic? Nempe per fortem contritionem
mortificativam sensualitatis."
Spiritual Richesse stands very straight, very vigilant, fixed and transfixed, ordered vertically,
hierarchical."41Citing a key spiritual idea of Saint Bonaventure's Itinerarium mentis in Deum, Chapter
IV, 4: "efficitur spiritus noster hierarchicus ad conscendendum sursum secundum conformitatem as illam
Ierusalem supernam" ("Our spirit, inasmuch as it is in conformity with the heavenly Jerusalem, is made
hierarchic in order to mount further.") The soul, reformed my grace, is ordered to reflect the angelic
hierarchy. See Saint Bonaventure, The Mind's Journey to God, trans. Philotheus Boehner, online edition,
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http://web.sbu.edu/theology/apczynski/courses/CLAR101/Intellectual journey/Itinerarium In the

background, brute creation is bridled, chained and shackled. A triple axis mundi now connects time and
eternity, finitude and God, bridging worlds. The lion's energetic courage has been fully appropriated by
the soul, along with the unicorns purity. The soul is permanently resolved, healed, victorious over earthly
temptation. Spiritual Richesse thus firmly grasps the Le Viste standard that grows out of the island like a
tree and with the other hand delicately makes contact with the Unicorn's horn symbolic of the teasure
that now protects the soul against the poison of profane wealth. The magic amulet of the horn
mysteriously touches the back of the Lady's hand, communicating its power but also signifying that the Le
Viste family prospers only through God's grace, which touches the soul."42Cf. Jean-Louis Chrtien's
discussion of Thomas Aquinas on God's touch, in The Call and the Response (New York: Fordham U.
Press, 2004), p. 129. The unicorn (reason, pure intellect) looks up admiringly at Lady
Wealth/Mortification, who gazes beyond the confines of space, to a point at infinity. Mystical theology,
Gerson explains, is an upward motion, an uplifting that guides the soul to God through a fervent and pure
love."43Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 146; "Theologia mistica est motio anagogica, hoc est
sursum ductiva in Deum, per amorem fervidum et purum." Mystical theology guides us beyond the
troubled sea of sensory desires and sets us on the firm shore of eternity, where we are stabilized forever in
God."44Jean Gerson, Thologie mystique, p. 168; ``Per theologiam misticam sumus in Deo, hoc est in eo
stabilimur et a mari turbido sensualium desideriorum ad litus solidum eternitatis adducitur." Is an
alchemical metaphor intended? In XVth century alchemy, the long-awaited moment of fixation," when
spirit and matter are permanently united, precedes and heralds the final metamorphosis, the point of no
return and the imminent realization of the philosopher's stone.
The soul's sixth sense

The sixth panel, denominated by the inscription A Mon Seul Dsir, depicts, as Bruel argues, the courtly
virtue of Largesse (Liberality), who is never happier than when she can say `Take this.'"45 See The
Romance of the Rose, p. 18. Unlike the other courtly virtues attending Deduit (Pleasure), Largesse
(Liberality) is from the start mysteriously connected to God, since God causes her wealth to multiply, so
that however much she gives away, she always has more."46Ibid. See also p. 19: "Her collar was
unfastened, for a short time ago she had, there and then, given the clasp to a lady. But it rather suited her
for the neck to be open and her throat disclosed, so that the soft whiteness of her skin showed through her
chemise." Largesse is also connected to the Arthurian Legend and thus not only to chivalry but also to the
chivalrous quest for the ever-replenished Holy Grail.47Ibid. Thus even within the courtly setting of the
Roman de la Rose, Liberality is imbued with a distinctive spiritual aura. Most remarkably, as we just saw,
Liberality herself receives gifts inexhaustibly from God. Largesse gives precisely what God gives her to
give and thus does unto others as she is done unto by God. Since the five previous courtly virtues have
each been explicitly coupled with a sense faculty in order to be spiritualized, might Largesse not in turn
lead us to a Sixth Sense?
To start, the Lady of our last tapestry is not arbitrarily plastered" in front of the magnificent night-blue
pavillion, as Bruel suggests, but poised to enter it, as the motion of her right shoulder suggests. Lion and
unicorn now cooperate to hold the folds of the pavillion open. The pavillion streams with mysterious gold
symbols, which have been variously interpreted: Are they gold tears (alluding to the Virgin)? Or tongues
of fire (referring to language)? Are they meant to evoke Danae's gold rain (alluding to marriage)? Do they
suggest synderesis, the scintilla of divine love that shines in the darkness of matter? Or do they symbolize
the alchemist's potable gold, itself symbolic of the Holy Grail and of its Biblical prefiguration, heavenly
manna?
The pavillion carves out an inner space within the island, inspiring Michel Serres to interpret it as
Page 10 of 15
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suggesting a sixth internal" sense. The Lady, however, hardly appears to be plunged in regret, as Serres's
interpretation holds (since she is parting with the jewelled realm of sensorialism.) Moreover, if Serres is
right to claim that she regrets giving away her jewels, how is she a figure of Largesse? In the courtly ethos
of the Roman de la Rose, Liberality, as we saw, delights in saying take this! and is the opposite of
clinging to possessions, the opposite of avarice. Liberality is the distinctive hallmark of courtly love since,
as the French adage says, Qui aime ne compte pas. Courtly lovers give one another everything," they
exchange hearts." Courtly Largesse thus mysteriously hints at a more absolute and final Largesse,
involving the gift of self.48Cf Jean Gerson, La Montagne Spirituelle, Chapter XVIII: "En quoy gist la
perfecccion de vie contemplative par semblance d'amour mondaine." ("In which lies the perfection of
contemplative life, similar to worldly love."
5. The Lady and the unicorn A mon seul desir

Our Lady does not seem to be giving her necklace away so much as discarding it. Her gesture of selfdivestiture transforms courtly Liberality into the mystical virtue of Pur Amour -- pure love that seeks no
reward. Gerson explains that, unlike contemplative theology, which leaves the soul unfulfilled, mystical
theology ravishes and satisfies." Mystical theology is an experiential knowledge of God through the
embrace of unitive love."49See Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 146. Pure love, he explains
further, suffices to itself and seeks nothing except to love": nec aliud preter amare querit.50Jean Gerson,
Sur la thologie mystique, p. 180. As a figure of Pur Amour on the threshold of ecstasy, our Lady
represents a paradox: her sole desire is to transcend desire that is hers and thus marks her off as separate
from God. How can she will not to will? Thus she symbolically gives away her necklace, which is hers
only because it is hers to give, symbolic of the self-directed volition that has become as superfluous and
burdensome to her as earlier her intellect. Both the Lady and her maidservant are now dressed in red, the
color of perfect Charity. Pur Amour seeks nothing for itself and receives everything, including its very
self.51Once again, the Bonaventurian source of Gerson's teaching is palpable. See Itinerarium mentis in
deum, Chapter VII, 4; "No one knows except him who receives it, no one receives it except him who
desires it."
In order to help us picture the ecstatic union that brings mystical theology to its culmination, Gerson, like
earlier teachers, evokes alchemy. Just as fire separates what is spiritual from gross matter, God's
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vivifying" love preserves whatever in us is spiritual and divine, leaving foreign substances and
impediments behind.52Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, pp. 202--205. The soul, thus assimilated
to God and qualitatively transformed by love, in turn transforms the body and gives it its own spiritual
properties." Thus the body's own properties are abandoned or made inoperative.53 Jean Gerson, Sur la
thology mystique, p. 204. Emphasis added. Made weightless by love and selfless by grace, the soul begins
to recover its ethereal body and spiritual senses.
What, then, is the Sixth sense? Is it synderesis, which, in Augustine's words, cited by Gerson, is the soul's
weight, pondus meum amor meus?54See Marc Vial, "Thologie mystique et suyndrse chez Jean
Gerson," in Vers la Contemplation, ed. Christian Trottman (Paris: Honor Champion, 2007). In numerous
passages, Gerson identifies the soul's amorous desire, contrition and then unitive love with the soul's
highest sense, synderesis.55See Marc Vial, "Thologie mystique et syndrse chez Jean Gerson," in
Christian Trottmann ed., Vers la Contemplation (Paris: Champion, 2007) pp. 215--232, especially pp.
217--225. But if synderesis is the soul's inclination to seek God and thus the soul's sense of its own exile,
synderesis must in some sense vanish, or be transformed, when the ecstatic soul finds its rest in God's
embrace. When the soul is purified, illuminated and tested, Gerson explains, nothing prevents it from
being transported by love to the One who is wholly desirable and lovable: totaliter desiderabilem et
totum amabilem. When the soul is conjoined and united with God, Gerson pursues, it embraces its
supreme Good, its center, its destination and perfection. What else could it possibly need? What else could
it desire?"56See Jean Gerson, Theology mystique, 206: quid ergo aliud ipsa requireret, aut ad quid aliud
ulterius inhiaret?
Lady Largesse stands poised to enter into a luminous darkness," which already frames her face like a
halo. Her gaze is focussed nowhere in this world. Stripped of her own self-will, her throat bare, Pur
Amour has no resources left of her own and now depends wholly on God's hospitality. According to
Gerson, ecstatic love is perfect prayer, which raises the soul beyond desire" (supra desiderium).57Jean
Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 212. Perfect prayer finds all that it seeks." When perfect prayer
knocks at the door, the door opens." Perfect prayer cannot be selfish since self-volition is discarded and
tirelessly comes to the aid of selves in need, feeding not just one or two individuals but the whole
mystical body with a maternal benevolence." And like a beggar who is always supremely welcome,
perfect prayer is never refused but obtains spiritual consolations inexhaustibly for all of creation.58Jean
Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 219. The sixth sense is thus the sense that emerges beyond
synderesis, in the radical selflessness of ecstatic prayer, namely the sense that, which is to say the
immediate experience that, for God, all things are possible."59Thus Jean Gerson, in his last writings,
sought to supersede synderesis with the idea that ecstatic love involves the whole essence of the soul,
lifted by grace. See Marc Vial, ``Thologie mystique et Syndrse chez Jean Geerson," pp. 229-232.
Back in the garden, the lapdog stares grimly at the viewer, perched on a silk cushion that hides a plain
wood bench. Its jewelled collar is gone. Michel Serres is right to say that Regret is not absent from the
scene, but it is the lapdog's regret that haunts the pleasure garden, not that of Pur Amour, who has
discarded all possibility of regret along with self-volition. What have you done, the lapdog asks
reproachfully, with courtly love? Amidst the mille fleurs, the birds of paradise, the trees, the rich brocades,
the fire of the lion, the radiance of the unicorn, the lapdog is now a figure of the soul's exile, stuck with its
body, its hope of reward, its inadequate fidelity and its five narrow senses. Profane virtues flatter us, but
they pass through us, like a dream, leaving no trace until the soul is moved from inside/elsewhere to
become a stranger in order to discover the country that will be shown to it."60Citing God's call to
Abraham, father of contemplatives, Genesis 12:1. Where (our weavers know) the soul will be a beggar, a
guest receiving everything. To Jean IV Le Viste and to the Master of the Cluny cycle, I myself am the
unwanted stranger, the lapdog of illusions, whom God has little reason to love or welcome.
Page 12 of 15
8/2/14 11:34 PM
Footnotes.
1. I thank Tom Epstein and Kascha Semonovitch for their careful review and helpful comments.
2. See Alain Erlande-Brandebourg (Conservateur au Muse de Cluny) La Dame la Licorne (Paris:
Editions de la Runion des Muses Nationaux, 1978).
3. See A. F. Kendrick, "Quelques remarques sur les tapisseries de la Dame la Licorne du Muse de
Cluny," Actes du Congrs d'Histoire de l'Art, III, Paris, 1924, p. 662.
4. See Michel Serres, Les Cinq Sens (Paris: Grasset, 1985), pp. 52--60.
5. See Anna Nilsn, "The Lady with the Unicorn. On Earthly Desire and Spiritual Purity" in Studies in
Art History 16, eds. Marja Terttu Knapas and Asa Ringbom (Gummerus Kirjapaino Jyvaskyla,
Finland, 1995) pp. 213--235.
6. See Phyllis Ackerman, ``The Lady and the Unicorn," The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs,
Vol. 66, No. 382 (Jan., 1935), pp. 35--36.
7. See Kristina E. Gourlay, ``La Dame La Licorne: A Reinterpretation," Gazette des Beaux--Arts,
139 (1997), pp. 47--72.
8. See Marie--Elisabeth Bruel, ``Les tapisseries de La Dame la Licorne, une reprsentation des
vertus allgoriques du Roman de la Rose," Gazette des Beaux--Arts, Dcembre 2000, pp. 215--232.
Started by Guillaume de Lorris circa 1230, the poem was continued in a more naturalistic vein by
Jean de Meun around 1275. On the difference between the two authors, see Denis de Rougemont, L'
Amour et l'occident (Paris: Plon, 1972) p. 192.
9. M.--E. Bruel, Les Tapisseries de La Dame la Licorne," p. 217: ``Le pavillon et ses tenants n'ont
donc rien voir avec la scne plaque devant."
10. Ibid.
11. See Jean--Luc Solre, ``Jean Gerson," Dictionnaire du Moyen ge, eds. Claude Gauvard, Alain de
Libera et [WHAT TEXT GOES HERE]
12. See Christine de Pisan, Jean Gerson, Jean de Montreuil, Gontier et Pierre Col, Le Dbat sur le
Roman de la Rose, d. E. Hickes (Paris: Champion, 1977).
13. See Marie--Josephe Pinet, La Montagne de Contemplation, La Mendicit Spirituelle de Jehan
Gerson (Lyon: Bosc, 1927), titles of Chapters II and X, pp. 17--18.
14. See Canticordum commentaire par Isabelle Fabre (Genve, CH.: Droz, 2005), p. 480.
15. See Genevive Souchal, "`Messeigneurs Les Vistes' et `la Dame la Licorne'", Bibliothque de
l'cole des chartes, 1983, Vol. 141, no. 2, p. 218.
16. Symbolically, the Hundred Years War played an important role in revealing the shortcomings of the
static, magico-superstitious mindset of the feudal nobility as the English longbow incapacitated
armored knights on the battlefield. See, e.g., Joel Meyniel, Archers et arbaletriers de la Guerre de
cent ans (1337--1453) (Saint Egrve: Editions Emotion primitive, 2006). On Gerson's project of
cultivating lay piety, in turn, see Dorothy Catherine Brown, Pastor and Laity in the Theology of
Jean Gerson (Cambridge, UK.: Cambridge U. Press, 1987).
17. See Le Roman de la Rose par Guillaume de Lorris et Jean de Meung, ed. Ernest Langlois (Paris,
1920), II, p. 31, line 590, to p. 38, line 726. See also The Romance of the Rose, trans. Frances
Horgan (Oxford and New York: Oxford U. Press, 1994), pp. 11--12: `Ì truly believed myself to be
in the earthly paradise, for the place was so beautiful that it seemed quite ethereal."
18. M.--E. Bruel identified Franchise based on two chief elements, namely the Lady's dress
("souquenille") and floating veil. See "Les Tapisseries de La Dame La Licorne," pp. 219--221.
See also The Romance of the Rose, p. 19: "Generosity of Spirit was nicely dressed, for no dress
suits a maiden so well as a sorquenie; a woman looks daintier and more elegant in a sorquenie than
in a tunic."
19. See Louis Mourin, Jean Gerson, prdicateur franais (Bruge: De Tempel, 1952), p. 442.
20. See The Romance of the Rose, p. 13: `À lady was singing to them, whose name was Joy. .. Singing
Page 13 of 15
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
8/2/14 11:34 PM
suited her wonderfully, for her voice was clear and pure, and she... knew well how to move her
body when dancing. It was her habit always and everywhere to be the first to sing, for singing was
her favorite occupation."
See Joyce L. Irwin, "The Mystical Music of Jean Gerson," Early Music History, Vol. 1 (1981), pp.
187--201; and Jean Gerson, Sur la thology mystique, ed. Marc Vial (Paris: Vrin, 2008) p. 140:
"intelligentes abstractius regulas artium et scientiarum."
See Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 122.
Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 122.
Ibid: "Accomodatius Euridicem accipiamus vim intellectualem datam homini ad considerationem
supernorum."
See Jean Gerson, Sur la thology mystique, p. 128.
See The Romance of the Rose, pp. 10--11.
Jean Gerson, Sur la thology mystique, p. 128; "Pro cuius manuductione palpabili ymaginemur,
conformiter ad divinum Augustinum in suo De Trinitate, quod sit aliquis supra montem excelsum
valde ad cuius cacumen neque venti neque nubes attingant, sicut de Olympo narrat Aristotiles." (
"Let us imagine, in order to guide ourselves palpably, someone situated in a very high mountain,
where neither winds nor clouds reach, as in the case of Olympus according to Aristotle.")
For the mirror as a symbol of contemplation, see Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 108.
See Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 148: ``Theologia mistica est irrationalis et amens, et
slutla sapientia."
See Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, pp. 140--3.
See Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 144: ``perfectior quam theologia symbolica, sicut
dilectio perfectior est cognitione, et voluntas intellectu, et caritas fide."
See Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 157: ``Quoniam theologia mistica, licet sit suprema
atque perfectissima notita, ipsa tamen potest haberi a quolibet fideli, etiam si sit muliericula vel
ydiota."
See The Romance of the Rose, p. 16: "Her flesh was dewy soft and she was as simple as a bride,
lily-white, with a smooth, delicate face."
See Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 152: "Sic mens nondum amore calescens intra
seipsam se continet, sed spiritu fervoris amore concepto, supergreditur quodammodo smetipsam,
quasi extra se saltitans atque volitans." ("Thus when the soul is not yet heated by love, it remains
contained in itself; but when the spirit of fervor is born from love, the soul exceeds itself, as it were,
as though dancing and fluttering outside of itself.")
See Ibid: "saltitans atque volens."
Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 150: "Hoc modo sensualitas aliquando se quasi capiens et
se deserens, tota nititur in rem desideratam se effundere, se transferre, se unire, ymmo illam penitus
quasi introrsus penetrare."
Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 146; "Theologia mistica est extensio animi in Deum, per
amoris desiderium."
See M.-E. Bruel, "Les tapisseries de la Dame la Licorne", pp. 221--222. see The Romance of the
Rose, pp. 17--18.
See Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 210: "Quietatur anima in Deo atque stabilitur,
possidens in eo omnia ceteraque contempens atque parvipendens."
Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 158: "Simplices, qui quidem fidem habent, possunt ex ea
consurgere ad unitivum amorem cum Deo. Quomodo sic? Nempe per fortem contritionem
mortificativam sensualitatis."
Citing a key spiritual idea of Saint Bonaventure's Itinerarium mentis in Deum, Chapter IV, 4:
"efficitur spiritus noster hierarchicus ad conscendendum sursum secundum conformitatem as illam
Ierusalem supernam" ("Our spirit, inasmuch as it is in conformity with the heavenly Jerusalem, is
made hierarchic in order to mount further.") The soul, reformed my grace, is ordered to reflect the
angelic hierarchy. See Saint Bonaventure, The Mind's Journey to God, trans. Philotheus Boehner,
Page 14 of 15
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
8/2/14 11:34 PM
online edition, http://web.sbu.edu/theology/apczynski/courses/CLAR101/Intellectual

journey/Itinerarium
Cf. Jean-Louis Chrtien's discussion of Thomas Aquinas on God's touch, in The Call and the
Response (New York: Fordham U. Press, 2004), p. 129.
Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 146; "Theologia mistica est motio anagogica, hoc est
sursum ductiva in Deum, per amorem fervidum et purum."
Jean Gerson, Thologie mystique, p. 168; ``Per theologiam misticam sumus in Deo, hoc est in eo
stabilimur et a mari turbido sensualium desideriorum ad litus solidum eternitatis adducitur."
See The Romance of the Rose, p. 18.
Ibid. See also p. 19: "Her collar was unfastened, for a short time ago she had, there and then, given
the clasp to a lady. But it rather suited her for the neck to be open and her throat disclosed, so that
the soft whiteness of her skin showed through her chemise."
Ibid
Cf Jean Gerson, La Montagne Spirituelle, Chapter XVIII: "En quoy gist la perfecccion de vie
contemplative par semblance d'amour mondaine." ("In which lies the perfection of contemplative
life, similar to worldly love."
See Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, p. 146.
Once again, the Bonaventurian source of Gerson's teaching is palpable. See Itinerarium mentis in
deum, Chapter VII, 4; "No one knows except him who receives it, no one receives it except him
who desires it."
Jean Gerson, Sur la thologie mystique, pp. 202--205.
Jean Gerson, Sur la thology mystique, p. 204. Emphasis added.
See Marc Vial, "Thologie mystique et suyndrse chez Jean Gerson," in Vers la Contemplation,
ed. Christian Trottman (Paris: Honor Champion, 2007).
See Marc Vial, "Thologie mystique et syndrse chez Jean Gerson," in Christian Trottmann ed.,
Vers la Contemplation (Paris: Champion, 2007) pp. 215--232, especially pp. 217--225.
See Jean Gerson, Theology mystique, 206: quid ergo aliud ipsa requireret, aut ad quid aliud ulterius
inhiaret?
Thus Jean Gerson, in his last writings, sought to supersede synderesis with the idea that ecstatic
love involves the whole essence of the soul, lifted by grace. See Marc Vial, ``Thologie mystique et
Syndrse chez Jean Geerson," pp. 229-232.
Citing God's call to Abraham, father of contemplatives, Genesis 12:1.
Page 15 of 15

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Is there a Sixth Sense in the Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries?

1. The Lady and the Unicorn, Taste

2. The Lady and the Unicorn, Hearing

3. The Lady and the Unicorn, Sight

The spirit of flowers

4. The Lady and the Unicorn, Touch

http://web.sbu.edu/theology/apczynski/courses/CLAR101/Intellectual journey/Itinerarium In the

The soul's sixth sense

5. The Lady and the unicorn A mon seul desir

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