[Ravensfort] cool tapestries to examine online

[jacinth]

10. Explore the Unicorn Tapestries
http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Unicorn/unicorn_splash.htm

In the Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum, ropes and guards prevent
visitors from getting too close to the Unicorn Tapestries and possibly
damaging them. This new Web site provides a chance to jump the rope,
disregard the guard, and get a really close look at these medieval
masterpieces. Several sections of the site are primarily designed for close
examination. A Closer Look allows viewers to magnify any section of any
tapestry by selecting with the mouse, while Flowers, Plants, and Trees
and The Birds and the Beasts provide both close-ups and extensive
information about details of the tapestries. For example, find out that the
lily woven into the Unicorn in Captivity is a Madonna lily, or Lilium
candidum, symbolic of the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages and able to
predict if a pregnant woman would bear a boy or girl -- when presented
with a lily and a rose, a woman who chose the lily would have a boy, and
the one who chose the rose, a girl. Other sections of the site include
audio and video of Metropolitan Museum director Phillipe de Montebello
telling the story of the hunt of the Unicorn, and David Rockefeller relating
how his father acquired the tapestries and donated them to the Met, as
well as information on how tapestries are woven, the sport of hunting in
medieval times, and the Cloisters. [DS]