Capturing the Unicorn - The New Yorker

Submitted by michael on Tue, 03/24/2015 - 12:47
Excerpt

Philippe de Montebello, the
director of the museum, declared that the Unicorn tapestries must be photographed on both
sides, to preserve a record of the colors and the mirror images. Colburn and her
associates would soon put new backing material on them, made of cotton sateen. Once they
were rehung at the Cloisters, it might be a century or more before the true colors of the
tapestries would be seen again.