'Earring' author weaves 'tapestry' tale

NEW YORK, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Four years after she created a rich, fictitious history for painter Johannes Vermeer, novelist Tracy Chevalier does the same for the famed Unicorn tapestries.

Chevalier's latest book, "The Lady and the Unicorn," will arrive in stores in January, just as a film based on her best-selling Vermeer novel, "Girl With a Pearl Earring," opens in theaters nationwide.

Much as she did in "Girl With a Pearl Earring," Chevalier spins a fascinating tale around real works of art in her new novel.

The six Lady and the Unicorn tapestries that inspired Chevalier's story of the same name hang in the Museum of the Middle Ages (also known as the Cluny Museum) in Paris.

Exactly who commissioned the elegant wall hangings and what they mean have been the source of argument and speculation amongst art scholars and enthusiasts for centuries. In her novel, Chevalier uses fiction to answer these questions and more.