The Lady and the Unicorn

Author(s): Walter Read Hovey

Source: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 66, No. 387 (Jun., 1935), p. 300
Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/866170 .
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LETTERS
" THE LADY AND THE UNICORN"
SIR,-In
the Shorter Notices of the
January issue,
Phyllis
Ackerman
surveyed
the
iconographical
back-
ground
of the
Lady
and the Unicorn
subject
as it
appears
in the well-known
Cluny tapestries. Possibly
the most
interesting phase
of this
subject
is to be found in Christian
art,
and in that
period
between the
gnostic philosophers
and its
emergence
in Western
iconography.
Of this she
does not
speak,
and I wish to call attention to the
motif in
Byzantine
illuminated
manuscripts
which seems
to fill this
gap.
Probably
the earliest
surviving example
of the
subject
in illumination occurs in the Chloudov Psalter which
dates from the ninth
century (Moscow
Historical
Museum,
number
i29).
The
representation
here seems
hardly appropriate
for the mention of the Unicorn in
the
ninety-second psalm,
and it is not
unlikely
that it
was taken from some earlier
manuscript
and
incorpor-
ated in the
margin
of this monastic Psalter. The
physiologus manuscript
of the
early
Christian
period
in Alexandria
might
well have
developed
the idea.
Strzygowski (Der
Bilderkreis des Griechischen
Physiologus,
Leipzig, 1899) speaks
of the connexion between the
animal
types
of the
physiologus
and those of Buddhist
art from India. This Indian source is mentioned
by
Miss Ackerman. A
splendid example
of the
Lady
and
the Unicorn
subject
occurs in the
physiologus
of
Smyrna,
of which an illustration is
given
in Diehl-Manuel d'art
byzantin. Although
the Unicorn occurs rather
early
in
Western
art,
I know of no
early example
of the Maiden
with the Unicorn. It would seem
likely
that it was
transmitted
through
this
Byzantine
source to reach its
delightful
attainment in the West
during
the late Middle
Ages. Very truly yours,
WALTER READ
HOVEY,
University
of
Pittsburgh.
"THE ROYAL COLLECTIONS: THE
FURNITURE "
SIR,-Lord
Gerald
Wellesley's
vivid and
witty
account
of the furniture in the
Royal
Palaces is a
truly
welcome
departure
from the
customary arid treatment of this
branch of the domestic
arts,
which
grows
stale
through
familiarity.
But since the
Royal
Collections are thus
placed upon permanent
record in THE
BURLINGTON
MAGAZINE,
it
may
be well to
point
out that Lord Gerald
has not
entirely
avoided certain
pitfalls.
He comments
on the inlaid cabinet with a
falling
front
(PAGE 229, D,)
as
being surprisingly
fine for the Elizabethan
period;
it is
Italian, belonging
to a well-known
group,
and no
finer than much Continental
marquetry
of that
age.
Writing
of the William III seaweed
marquetry writing-
table,
Lord Gerald remarks " the twisted
(or
' writhed'
as Wren calls
it) legs
are full of movement in their out-
line because
they
are undecorated." If
they
are so
dynamic
as he
affirms,
it is to the credit of the
restorer,
for
owing
to their
decayed state,
the
legs
were
entirely
renewed
early
in the
present century.
We are told that
"
an
interesting
and rather richer
piece
made for
William
III,
and now in the Picture
Gallery,
is a
Boulle cabinet which was
probably
the work of French
Huguenot refugees."
It was made
by
Gerreit
Jensen
(alias
Gerald
Johnson),
cabinet-maker to Charles
II,
William
III,
and
Queen Anne;
and is
probably
the
" fine desk-table inlaid with metal "
supplied by Jensen
for
?70
in
1694-5.
Miss
Margaret Jourdain
has
pointed
out that he was the
only
one of the
Royal
craftsmen to
inlay
in this
style and, apart
from
Windsor,
he was
responsible
for most of the fine furniture
supplied
to
Queen Mary
at
Kensington
Palace. The restored
writing
table of William III
may
be identified with a
"
ffolding
table of fine markatree with crowne and
cypher
" which
figures
in
Jensen's
bills to the Crown
in i690.
Yours
faithfully,
RALPH EDWARDS
Lord Gerald
Wellesley replies
as
follows:-
I am
grateful
to Mr.
Ralph
Edwards for his correc-
tions to
my
article on the
Royal
Collections of Furniture.
I
accept
without reserve his
pronouncement
that the so-
called Elizabethan cabinet is
really
Italian. I
accepted
rather
against my
own
judgment
the dictum of an
authority, only
a
degree
less eminent that Mr.
Edwards,
that the cabinet was Elizabethan. I knew
quite
well that
William III's seaweed
marquetry writing-table
was
drastically
restored at the
beginning
of
King
Edward's
reign,
but there is no reason to think that the new
legs
are not an exact
copy
of the old
ones,
and the
appear-
ance of the
piece is, therefore,
not
changed,
at
any
rate
in a
photograph.
Mr. Edwards will
hardly deny
that
the other
piece
made for William III which I mention
shows
strong
French influence. I
agree
that it was
probably
the
piece supplied by
Gerreit
Jensen,
but we
cannot be
absolutely positive
and in
any
case Gerreit
Jensen
would
appear
from his name to have been a
foreigner.
J.
E. LIOTARD
SIR,-I
am
just
now
writing
a book on the Swiss
painter J.
E. Liotard
(i702-1789),
the famous " Paintre
Turc,"
who lived
many years
in
Constantinople
and
visited
Vienna, Paris, London, Amsterdam, etc.,
where
he
painted
the members of the Courts and of the
aristocracy
as well as
prominent
artists.
Many
of his works made
during
his
stay
in
England
(1754-55
and
1772-73)
have never been mentioned in
literature.
Others,
which have been mentioned
by
Tilanus
(Humbert,
Revilliod et Tilanus : La vie et les
euvres de
J.
E.
Liotard, Amsterdam, 1897),
and
by
Fosca
(F.
Fosca:
Liotard, Paris, 1928),
have
changed
their
owners by
succession or sale in the meantime.
As I am
intending
to furnish
my
book with a
complete
catalogue and,
as far as
possible, reproductions
of all
his
works,
I should be thankful to
any
reader of THE
BURLINGTON MAGAZINE if he would communicate with
me,
in case he has a
picture by
Liotard in his own
possession,
or knows the address of
any
owner of such.
The
following
information with
regard
to
pictures
by
Liotard would be of
great
interest to me :-
(a)
Is it a
pastel,
oil
painting,
or miniature ?
(b)
Painted on
vellum, paper, canvas, enamel, etc. ?
(c)
Size
(in inches)
?
(d)
Is it
signed
or dated ?
(e)
Names of the
person represented? (if
it is a
portrait).
(f) Pedigree
and further
particulars,
if known ?
As the
obtaining
of a
photograph
is of the
greatest
importance
to
me,
all costs of
making
them would be
paid by me,
if wanted. Yours
faithfully,
N. S. TRIVAS
29 Tesselschade Straat,
Amsterdam, Holland.
300
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