The Lady
Old friends...
Not all the “people” I visit are actually people - sounds odd, I know.
Every time I go to Paris, the very first lady I want to see is The Lady and the Unicorn in the Cluny Museum. She feels like an old friend, waiting quietly in her tapestry world.
Little is known about the lady - except that she was once found in a pigsty - and then Tracy Chevalier came along and spun a fantastic novel around her. I love that as a backstory. Honestly, so much of history is shaped by whoever wrote it down, not necessarily by what really happened on the ground… so why not go with the story that brings you joy?
Another lady I absolutely adore is the Medusa tucked away in the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul. There’s something wonderfully mysterious about her, half-hidden in the shadows, now watching visitors wander past.
Again, not a lot is known about her. It’s all conjecture, really. But, boy, she must have an incredible backstory. I’m just waiting for the day someone comes along and writes it down—because I’ll be first in line to buy that story.
When the cistern was built all those years ago… mid 500’s, they found her somewhere -no record of where - and set her there, upside down, to support one of the great pillars holding up the roof. The theory goes that turning her upside down would rob her of her stone-turning powers, being a Medusa and all. And yet every time I visit, I’m completely transfixed. I end up standing there like a statue myself, staring at her, wondering who she was and how she ended up in that shadowy, magical corner of Istanbul.
Just look at her face. You can tell this sculpture was based on a real, once-living woman. She has such power in her features - strong, beautiful, utterly compelling. She feels real. Oh, please… somebody, someday, tell me a satisfying story about her. I’m ready for it.
