The Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages

A museum of the Middle Ages?  Really?  Now why would anyone want to go to one of them?  My sole reason for visiting was to see the ruins of the Roman baths that date from between the 1st and 3rd centuries.  That is the time period when Paris was a small outpost of the mighty Roman empire.  Not so small that it lacked for a sizable bath house. The ruins were mostly big rooms, but the ceilings, shown below, are pretty cool.

Frigidarium of Ancient Roman Baths, Cluny museum

There are also some small mosaics that were found in the ruins:

Mostly art and sculpture from the Middle Ages fails to interest me--the sculptures are rigid, the painting is flat looking, and is about themes I don't get excited about.  However, this museum has a couple of wonderful sculptures where the figures had such movement that you would have thought it was much later work, as is shown in this photo (taken from the web). The figures also retain a bit of paint which indicate that like the Greek sculpture of antiquity, stone sculpture in the Middle Ages was painted.

I also learned that Asian people aren't the only ones who do very intricate and lovely ivory carvings, something that appeared in Europe during the Middle Ages.

Of course, the great art of the Middle Ages was stained glass windows like those at Chartres and Saint Chapelle.  The Cluny museum has a lot of small sections of glass, including pieces from Saint Chapelle.  The nice part is that they are illuminated from behind, and you can stand with your nose 6 inches from the glass.

However, the biggest surprise for me was the tapestries.  I've seen lots of them in museums--they are usually dark, very elaborate scenes, and one can see why they were so popular in the Middle Ages and beyond.  Yet for me, they are only of mild interest.  That has changed with the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries dating from about 1500 at the Cluny.  There are six tapestries, varying a bit in size, but all probably 8 feet high and 12 feet or more wide.  Five of the panels represent a maiden and one of the five senses.  Always there is a unicorn in the tapestry and usually a lion.  The background is called mille fleurs, million flowers.  The sixth tapestry is less understood.  There is a banner saying "Mon Seul Desir" (my only desire), so how this relates to the other five has been speculated up endlessly.

The photos below are from postcards because it is not possible to take photos of these for concern of light damage.  They are hung in a room with fairly low lighting so photographing is difficult.

So what is so amazing?  The colors are astonishing, and the maidens each are lovely.  The theme of each piece is also intriguing for how it represents the sense.  The brocades of the maidens' dresses are still visible in the tapestry and each has trees that can be distinguished from their detail as apples, pines, maples, etc.  They are the loveliest wall hangings I have ever seen.  

The lady and the unicorn: Taste (Le Gout)

The lady and the unicorn: my only desire (Mon Seul Desir)

Go to the Cluny--these alone are worth the trip!