The Lady and the Unicorn. Tracy Chevalier
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I arrived the steward took me not to Jean Le Viste’s private chamber, a map-lined room where he performs duties for Court and King alongside family matters, but to the Grande Salle, where the Le Vistes receive visitors and entertain. I had never been there. It was a long room with a large hearth at the opposite end from the door and an oak table down the centre. Apart from a stone coat of arms that hung on the chimneybreast and another painted over the door, it was unadorned – though the ceiling was panelled with handsome carved wood.
Not so grand, I thought as I looked around. Although shutters were open, the fire hadn’t been lit and the room was chilly with its bare walls.
‘Wait here for my master,’ the steward said, glaring at me. In this house people either respected artists or showed their contempt.
I turned my back on him and gazed out of a narrow window where there was a clear view of the towers of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Some say Jean Le Viste took this house so that his pious wife could step across to the church easily and often.
The door opened behind me and I turned, prepared to bow. It was only a servant girl, who smirked as she caught me half-bent. I straightened and watched as she moved across the room, banging a pail against her leg. She knelt and began to clear the fireplace of ashes.
Was she the one? I tried to remember – it had been dark that night behind the stables. She was fatter than I recalled, and sullen with her heavy brow, but her face was sweet enough. It was worth a word.
‘Stay a moment,’ I said when she had pulled herself up clumsily and made her way to the door. ‘Sit and rest your feet. I’ll tell you a story.’
The girl stopped with a jolt. ‘You mean the story of the unicorn?’
She was the one. I opened my mouth to answer, but the girl jumped in before me. ‘Does the story go on to say that the woman grows big with child and may lose her place? Is that what happens?’
So that was why she was fat. I turned back to the window. ‘You should have taken more care.’
‘I shouldn’t have listened to you, is what I should have done. I should have shoved your tongue right up your arse.’
‘Out you go now, there’s a good girl. Here.’ I dug into my pocket, pulled out a few coins and threw them onto the table. ‘To help with the baby.’
The girl stepped across the room and spat in my face. By the time I’d wiped the spittle from my eyes she was gone. So were the coins.
Jean Le Viste came in soon after, followed by Léon Le Vieux. Most patrons use a merchant like Léon to act as middleman, haggling over terms, drawing up the contract, providing initial money and materials, making sure the work gets done. I’d already had dealings with the old merchant over coats of arms painted for a chimneybreast, an Annunciation for the chamber of Jean Le Viste’s wife, and some stained glass for the chapel in their château near Lyons.
Léon is much favoured by the Le Vistes. I have respect for him but I cannot like him. He is from a family that were once Jews. He makes no secret of it, but has used it to his advantage, for Jean Le Viste is also from a family much changed over time. That is why he prefers Léon – they are both outsiders who have made their way in. Of course Léon is careful to attend Mass two or three times a week at Notre Dame, where many will see him, just as Jean Le Viste takes care to act the true noble, commissioning works for his house, entertaining lavishly, bowing and scraping to his King.
Léon was looking at me, smiling through his beard as if he had spotted a monkey on my back. I turned to Jean Le Viste. ‘Bonjour, Monseigneur. You wished to see me.’ I bowed so low my head throbbed. It never hurt to bow low.
Jean Le Viste’s jaw is like a hatchet, his eyes like knife blades. They flicked around the room now, then rested on the window over my shoulder. ‘I want to discuss a commission with you, Nicolas des Innocents,’ he said, pulling at the sleeves of his robe, which was trimmed with rabbit fur and dyed the deep red lawyers wear. ‘For this room.’
I glanced around the room, keeping my face clear of thoughts. It was best to be so with Jean Le Viste. ‘What did you have in mind, Monseigneur?’
‘Tapestries.’
I noted the plural. ‘Perhaps a set of your coat of arms to hang either side of the door?’
Jean Le Viste grimaced. I wished I hadn’t spoken.
‘I want tapestries to cover all of the walls.’
‘All of them?’
‘Yes.’
I looked around the room once again, more carefully this time. The Grande Salle was at least ten paces long and five wide. Its walls were very thick, the local stone rough and grey. Three windows were cut into one of the long walls, and the hearth took up half of one of the end walls. Tapestries to line the room could take a weaver several years.
‘What would you have as the subject, Monseigneur?’ I had designed one tapestry for Jean Le Viste – a coat of arms, of course. It had been simple enough, scaling up the coat of arms to tapestry size and designing a bit of background greenery around it.
Jean Le Viste folded his arms over his chest. ‘Last year I was made President of the Cour des Aides.’
The position meant nothing to me but I knew what I should say. ‘Yes, Monseigneur. That is a great honour to you and your family.’
Léon rolled his eyes to the carved ceiling, while Jean Le Viste waved his hand as if he were ridding the room of smoke. Everything I said seemed to annoy him.
‘I want to celebrate the achievement with a set of tapestries. I’ve been saving this room for a special occasion.’
This time I waited.
‘Of course it is essential that the family coat of arms be displayed.’
‘Of course, Monseigneur.’
Then Jean Le Viste surprised me. ‘But not on its own. There are already many examples of the coat of arms alone, here as well as in the rest of the house.’ He gestured at the arms over the door and hearth, and to some carved in the ceiling beams that I hadn’t noticed before. ‘No, I want it to be part of a larger scene, to reflect my place at the heart of the Court.’
‘A procession, perhaps?’
‘A battle.’
‘A battle?’
‘Yes. The Battle of Nancy.’
I kept my face thoughtful. I even smiled a little. But in truth I knew little of battles, and nothing of this one at Nancy, of who had been there, who had been killed and who had won. I’d seen paintings of battles but never done one myself. Horses, I thought. I would need to paint at least twenty horses to cover these walls, tangled with men’s arms and legs and armour. I wondered then what had made Jean Le Viste – or Léon, more likely – choose me for this work. My reputation at the Court is as a miniaturist, painter of tiny portraits of ladies that they give men to carry. Praised for their delicacy, the miniatures are much in demand. I paint shields and ladies’ carriage doors for drink money, but my true skill is in making a face the size of my thumb, using a few boar bristles and colour mixed with egg white. It needs a steady hand, and that I have, even after a long night of drinking at Le Coq d’Or. But the thought of painting twenty huge horses – I began to sweat, though the room was chilly.
‘You are sure that you want the Battle of Nancy, Monseigneur,’ I said. It was not quite a question.
Jean Le Viste frowned. ‘Why would I not be sure?’
‘No reason, Monseigneur,’ I answered quickly. ‘But they will be important works and you must be sure you have chosen what you want.’ I cursed myself for my clumsy words.
Jean Le Viste snorted. ‘I always know what I want. I wonder at you, though – you don’t seem so keen on this work. Perhaps I should find another artist who is happier to do it.’
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