Editing Tapestry (section)

===Millefleur style===
[[File:(Toulouse) Mon seul désir (La Dame à la licorne) - Musée de Cluny Paris.jpg|thumb|360px|''The Lady and the Unicorn'': ''À mon seul désir'' ([[Musée national du Moyen Âge]], Paris). Probably Brussels, c. 1500.]]
[[Millefleur]] (or millefleurs) was a background style of many different small flowers and plants, usually shown on a green ground, as though growing in grass.  Often various animals are added, usually all at about the same size, so that a rabbit or dove and a [[unicorn]] are not much different in size.<ref>[[:File:Arazzo millefiori Pistoia parte centrale.jpg|Example made in Pistoia in Italy]]</ref>  Trees are usually far too small and out of scale with the flowers around them, a feature also generally found in medieval painting.

The millefleur style was used for a range of different subjects from about 1400 to 1550, but mainly between about 1480 and 1520.  In many subjects the millefleur background stretches to the top of the tapestry, eliminating any sky; the minimization of sky was already a feature of tapestry style; the [[Devonshire Hunting Tapestries]] show an early stage of the style.    Prominent millefleur backgrounds, as opposed to those mostly covered with figures, are especially a feature of allegorical and courtly subjects.  ''[[The Lady and the Unicorn]]'' set in Paris are famous examples, from around 1500.<ref>Osborne, 757</ref>

Millefleur backgrounds became very common for heraldic tapestries, which were one of the most popular relatively small types, usually more tall than wide.  These usually featured the coat of arms of the patron in the centre, with a wide floral field.  They would often be hung behind the patron when he sat in state or dined, and were made for many nobles who could not afford the huge narrative sets bought by royalty.  [[Enghien]] was a smaller weaving centre that seems to have specialized in these.<ref name="Osborne, 759"/>  Earlier types of heraldic tapestries had often repeated elements of the heraldry in patterns.