La Dame à la Licorne by Line Vautrin

“La Dame à la Licorne” (The Lady and the Unicorn), silvered bronze box by Line Vautrin.
Crafted in silvered bronze, this rectangular box features a highly poetic relief design. On its lid, a stylized female figure stands at the center, framed by horizontal lines reminiscent of a curtain or tapestry—an allusion to the celebrated medieval cycle The Lady and the Unicorn.
The Lady and the Unicorn – A Medieval Masterpiece
The motif of this box by Line Vautrin is inspired by the famous tapestry cycle of The Lady and the Unicorn, a masterpiece of medieval art now housed in the Musée de Cluny in Paris. Woven at the end of the 15th century, the six tapestries depict a noble lady accompanied by a unicorn and a lion, set within a luxuriant millefleurs background.
Five of the panels illustrate the five senses — taste, smell, sight, hearing, and touch — while the sixth, entitled “À mon seul désir”, evokes free will and the enigma of desire.
At once an allegory of courtly love and a meditation on life’s pleasures, the cycle has become a universal symbol of poetry and refinement. By referencing it, Line Vautrin reinterprets this medieval heritage through a modern, pared-down vocabulary, endowing her box with a mythical and timeless resonance.
Inside lined with cork.