This is a difficult question to answer, if we are focusing on the immediate post-Conquest period, because we have no evidence whatsoever to call upon. Assuming that the patron of the tapestry was, as is widely accepted today, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, then it may have been used to decorate the cathedral that he had constructed in Bayeux during his lifetime. It may even have been designed as an ornament for the consecration of that building in , though some historians dispute that. Presumably whoever did have the tapestry made would have wanted others to come view it and share in the story it tells, as well as be impressed by the magnificence of both the patron for being the benefactor of such a great work , and of Duke William himself for orchestrating his victory.
If it was displayed in a cathedral, illumination would have been dim to say the least. The tapestry could perhaps instead have been displayed in a secular building, or it could have been displayed temporarily and then stored away, maybe being brought out for particular gatherings, when there was someone on hand to tell the story in person as well. It was traditionally brought out for display in the cathedral at a certain point in the year, and then stored away.
As we move forward into more recent times, the tapestry has continued to have a propaganda purpose. Napoleon considered it important when he was readying his plans to invade Britain at the start of the 19th century and had it brought to Paris for display.
In the Second World War it was again deemed a useful tool by the Nazis , where it was studied as part of a research project to demonstrate the Germanic origins of European culture and moved to Paris for safe-keeping. The Bayeux Museum, where the Bayeux Tapestry is currently housed, has digitised the full 70 metres of this Norman chronicle.
Visit their website to examine it in full. More precisely it is The panels that were produced separately and then eventually sewn together to form one long whole. Plus, some of the vignettes in the tapestry appear to be based on designs that we know were found in manuscripts held in the library of a monastery in Canterbury, so there are those who argue that it was actually made not just in England, but more precisely in Canterbury. The remaining 88 are attached to horses.
Professor George Garnett takes a look at the priapic predilections of the Tapestry designers , and what the proliferation of genitalia can tell us about the story of the Norman Conquest. Sign in. Back to Main menu Virtual events Masterclasses.
The battle scenes in the Bayeux Tapestry have taught military historians about fighting techniques in the 11th century. Q: Who made the Bayeux Tapestry, and why? Now explore the Bayeux Tapestry yourself The Bayeux Museum, where the Bayeux Tapestry is currently housed, has digitised the full 70 metres of this Norman chronicle.
The year was —William invaded and successfully conquered England, becoming the first Norman King of England he was also known as William the Conqueror.
The Bayeux Tapestry consists of seventy-five scenes with Latin inscriptions tituli depicting the events leading up to the Norman conquest and culminating in the Battle of Hastings in Falconer detail , Bayeux Tapestry, c. Although it is called the Bayeux Tapestry, this commemorative work is not a true tapestry as the images are not woven into the cloth; instead, the imagery and inscriptions are embroidered using wool yarn sewed onto linen cloth.
The tapestry is sometimes viewed as a type of chronicle. However, the inclusion of episodes that do not relate to the historic events of the Norman Conquest complicate this categorization.
Nevertheless, it presents a rich representation of a particular historic moment as well as providing an important visual source for eleventh-century textiles that have not survived into the twenty-first century. Normans with horses on boats, crossing to England, in preparation for battle detail , Bayeux Tapestry, c. The Bayeux Tapestry was probably made in Canterbury around Because the tapestry was made within a generation of the Norman defeat of the Anglo-Saxons, it is considered to be a somewhat accurate representation of events.
Based on a few key pieces of evidence, art historians believe the patron was Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. Odo was the half-brother of William, Duke of Normandy. Furthermore, the tapestry favorably depicts the Normans in the events leading up to the battle of Hastings, thus presenting a Norman point of view.
We do not know the identity of the artists who produced the tapestry. The high quality of the needlework suggests that Anglo-Saxon embroiderers produced the tapestry. At the time, Anglo-Saxon needlework was prized throughout Europe. The answer to this question changes when we consider where the Tapestry was meant to be displayed.
If we take recent arguments put forward by Gale Owen-Crocker and Chris Henige, the Tapestry would have been hung in a room in a castle keep, which Henige suggests is Dover Castle. Therefore a cross-section of people would have viewed the Bayeux Tapestry. There is no concrete evidence for when the Tapestry was made, nor how it ended up in France.
Currently the agreed date for its creation is sometime before the end of the 11th century. Scholars agree that the first positive record of the tapestry in France is the Bayeux Cathedral inventory of At present we do not know what happened to it between these dates.
Professor George Beech has argued that the tapestry could have been made in France, but most scholars believe it was made in Anglo-Saxon England, with the most likely centre being in or around Canterbury. It is difficult to say how long it took to make and there has been no specific research on this. The answer would depend on how many women were working on the embroidery simultaneously; the size of the building s in which it was being made; access to light and access to materials.
Any estimation of the time taken to make the tapestry would need to take into account the time taken to manufacture the required materials; plus the time involved in the production of the design itself; plus other logistics.
The base textile ground fabric of the Bayeux Tapestry is linen. It was stitched with wool threads dyed with natural dyes. A small number of linen threads were also sporadically used. Over the intervening centuries a number of linen textile patches were added to the back of the tapestry to cover tears and holes.
During the 19th century, areas of the missing embroidery were re-stitched with wool thread dyed with chemicals — on the front of the hanging these appear more garish than the original threads. On the reverse, the level of stitch-work is not as neat or precise as the original. Running along the top of the tapestry is a strip of linen fabric.
The French conservators who studied the tapestry during its conservation thought the strip was old, but they were not sure how old. An early backing was lost during restoration work on the tapestry in the 19th century, therefore a new lining was attached. Correct, the Bayeux Tapestry is actually embroidery. A tapestry is a woven textile where the design is woven into the fabric as the textile is being created on the loom.
Embroidery, on the other hand, is stitched onto a piece of textile that is already woven. The design is often, but not always, drawn onto the ground fabric for the embroiderer to follow.
When you view a tapestry the design and the ground fabric appear meshed together because they were created at the same time, whereas when you look at embroidery the stitching often stands proud of the ground fabric. This is particularly true of the Bayeux Tapestry. Four embroidery stitches — stem stitch; split stitch; chain stitch; and laid work — were used on the Bayeux Tapestry. Stem stitch was predominately used as an outline stitch i. All three of these stitches are worked in single and double rows.
It is used for nearly all fillings throughout the hanging. Variations of this stitch were also popular in 17th-century crewel-work embroidery [a type of surface embroidery using wool]. All the stitches used in the Bayeux Tapestry were popular during the medieval period, with stem stitch, split stitch and occasionally chain stitch being worked in wool and silk threads.
Laid work does not survive as well, but there are examples from fragmented hangings discovered in Viking contexts, all worked in wool threads.
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