Dyes and textile fibres of an iconic tapestry set from the medieval period to the present day: The Lady and the Unicorn (15 th century, Musée de Cluny)
Résumé
The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry, supposedly made at the end of the 15 th century, is a set of 6 tapestries representing an allegory of the five senses They were acquired by the Musée de Cluny in 1882 undergoing more than a dozen restoration campaigns since his date In 1889 Jules André Lavaux an independent tapestry weaver also working for the Gobelins manufactory rewove entirely a horizontal band at the bottom of the tapestries Nowadays, this band is considerably deteriorated and visible Liquid chromatography analyses ( have been performed by the LRMH to characterize, inter alia, the dyes employed during this restoration campaign We are now proposing a preliminary study of these tapestries with non invasive and contactless methods ( hyperspectral imaging [VIS and SWIR] and fluorimetry) to identify the materials used ( fibres etc in both original medieval areas and restored ones To facilitate the identification, a colour chart has been produced according to the recipes described in old books by Myrobolan workshop in Brussels Natural synthetic dyes have been fixed on wool and silk to record reflectance fluorescence spectra to constitute a specific database Three tapestries "Mon seul Désir ","Le Goût" and "Le Toucher" were studied during their exhibition at the Musée des Abattoirs in Toulouse in November 2021 Weld and madder have been found on the medieval parts and the restored areas have been mapped thanks to the chemical difference of used materials. Preliminary results are presented and discussed for contributing to the general knowledge of these precious tapestries