Disney's Sleeping Beauty Draws on Medieval Tapestries
Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty, based on Charles Perrault's 1697 fairytale collection, drew visual inspiration from medieval tapestries, particularly the Unicorn Tapestries and the Shepherd and Shepherdess Making Music tapestry at The Met Cloisters. Art director Eyvind Earle referenced these works to capture medieval aesthetics, including millefleurs designs and courtship scenes. The film's opening scene features a replica of The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's 2021-2022 exhibition 'Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts' highlighted these connections, placing the Shepherd and Shepherdess Making Music tapestry in dialogue with the film. The exhibition, curated by Wolf Burchard, ended in March 2022.
Key facts
- Disney's 1959 Sleeping Beauty was based on Charles Perrault's 1697 fairytale collection.
- The 1695 manuscript 'Contes de ma mère l'Oye' is at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.
- Art director Eyvind Earle referenced medieval tapestries, including the Unicorn Tapestries and Shepherd and Shepherdess Making Music.
- The Shepherd and Shepherdess Making Music tapestry (1500-1530, South Netherlandish) is in The Metropolitan Museum's collection.
- The film's opening scene features a replica of The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries.
- The Met's exhibition 'Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts' ran from 2021 to March 2022.
- Wolf Burchard curated the exhibition and authored the accompanying book.
- The film's soundtrack is based on Tchaikovsky's 1890 ballet.
- Earle's concept art is held at the Walt Disney Animation Research Library in Glendale, CA.
- The film also drew on works by Albrecht Dürer, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Jan van Eyck, and the Limbourg Brothers.
Entities
Artists
- Charles Perrault
- Eyvind Earle
- Wolf Burchard
- John Hench
- Walt Disney
- Clyde Geronimi
- Albrecht Dürer
- Pieter Bruegel the Elder
- Jan van Eyck
- Limbourg Brothers
Institutions
- Walt Disney
- The Morgan Library & Museum
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The Met Cloisters
- Walt Disney Animation Research Library
- The New York Times
Locations
- New York City
- New York
- USA
- Glendale
- CA
- South Netherlandish