Bayeux Tapestry

What it Is and a Brief History of Its Reception

What is it?

One of the “masterpieces of medieval art”

And a miracle of survival

Medieval Art

Romanesque: Durham

Gothic: Notre Dame de Paris

Tapestries: Cluny in Paris

Unicorn in NYC

Cloisters MuseumNYC

Before 1066: Not As Much

Basic Description

230’ x 20-18”8 or ten colors of dyed wool on bleached

linenThree panels of images or one main

panel with an upper and a lower borderOne crawling script in Latin

Provenance and Date

Winchester or CanterburyNormandy or Loire Valley or Boulogne1070’s1077 Dedication of Bayeux Cathedral1082 Odo is in prison1086 William’s Death1097 Odo’s Death1106 fire in Bayeux Cathedral

BT Grammar

Sometimes the borders and script interact with the major panel

The nature of the interaction varies

Sometimes image points to script

Sometimes script touches panel

Borders

The borders interact in several waysFables are used to comment on a sceneOrnamental animals and shapes change

to register something in the main panel

Fable or Image

Ornamental Register

The Story: Part 1

Harold’s LeavingLanding in PonthieuRescue by WilliamBrittany AdventureHarold’s Return

The Story: Part 2

Edward’s Death and Harold’s CoronationNews Gets Back to WilliamBuilding of FleetCrossing the Channel

The Story: Part 3

Landing in PevenseyGathering Provisions and EatingBuilding FortBurning HomesBattle of HastingsHarold’s DeathMissing Ending

Map

Proposed Ending

History of the Tapestry

History

1476 – “Item, a very long and narrow hanging, embroidered with images and writing depicting the conquest of England, which is hung around the nave of the Church on the day and through the octaves of the relics.” [June 24-July 1]

[item une tente très longue et estroicte de telle à broderie de ymages et escripteaulx, faisans representation du Conquest d’Angleterre, laquelle est tendue environ la nef de l’église le jour et part les octabes des reliques.]

History

Baudri of Bourgeuil Adelae Comitissae (1100 approx)

Perhaps Wace reflects the Tapestry in his Roman de Rou (c. 1160)

Inventory of 1420 of Court of Burgundy records a large tapestry whose subject is the Conquest

History

1476 However, the "very narrow strip of linen, embroidered with figures and inscriptions representing the Conquest of England" mentioned in the 1476 inventory of the Treasury of Bayeux Cathedral is usually understood to be the Bayeux Tapestry” (Foys).

History

“As the inventory also describes the tradition of hanging the textile around the nave of the cathedral during the Feast of the Relics, a practice still in operation when the Tapestry was rediscovered in the 1730s, it is safe to surmise that this was a regular use of the Tapestry for at least 250 years. In 1563, a royal report mentions the loss of some valuable wall hangings, and the preservation of some others, during the course of the pillaging of Bayeux by Calvinists” (Foys).

History 1724 – M. Lancelot, paper Explication d’un

monument de Guillaume le Conquérant a sketch which Lancelot received from a friend of the Tapestry, but Lancelot admits in the paper that he is not sure if it is a fresco or stained glass or a tapestry.

1728 – Dom Bernard de Montfaucon – followed up on this work. Guessed that the sketches were by one N.J. Foucault. He was correct, but the sketches were only of the first part.

History

1729 – Montfaucon hired a draftsman Antoine Benoît to finish the sketch and they were published. Vol 1. Monuments de la Monarchie française in 1729.

1730 – Vol. 2 appeared.

History

1792 – During the French Revolution and upon a moment of city panic, the Tapestry was almost used as a covering of a goods wagon.

1794 – Again the Tapestry almost cut up to be used as a decoration of a float for a parade. By the end of this year, the Tapestry was moved to city storage.

History

1803 – Napoleon summoned the Tapestry to Paris to the Musée Napoleon. Supposedly Napoleon himself studied the Tapestry as he was contemplating an invasion of England; he was, however, very concerned about the comet scene because a comet appeared over France that year. By the end of the year, the Tapestry was returned to Bayeux.

History

1812 – Tapestry studied by Abbé de la Rue and moved to Hôtel de Ville.

History

1818-1819 – Charles Stothard, widely respected draftsman of England, was commissioned by the Society of Antiquarians of London to make a complete color copy. Somehow in the process of making this copy a small portion of the Tapestry was cut off and secreted to the Albert and Victoria Museum in London. Upon discovery of the deception, the museum returned the piece.

History

1835 – A. Hugo in his book La France Pittoresque mentions in a section about Normandy that “the Hôtel de Ville at Bayeux deserves special attention, because they keep there the finest relic of the Middle Ages, the famous Tapestry of Queen Matilda.” The Muncipal Council of Bayeux realized that if they did not take special care the Tapestry would be destroyed, so they decided a permanent structure should be build to house it.

History

1842 – Tapestry moved to a special room in the Bibliothèque Publique, Place due Château, shown at eye level and behind glass.

History

1885 – Elizabeth Wardle and the Leek Society of Embroiders decided that England should have its own Tapestry, so they made a complete reproduction. They finished it in 1886, and it now hangs in the city museum of Reading in England.

History

1913 – The Tapestry was moved to the Old Episcopal Palace on the first floor given over to just the Tapestry.

1939 – Tapestry taken down and stored for this year.

History

1940 – German occupation forces demanded to see the Tapestry on several occasion.

1941 – To protect the Tapestry the French authorities moved the Tapestry to the Châteu des Sources near Le Mans, where it was studied and photographed by the Germans for about a month. Some of the documents of that study are just now coming to light.

History

1944 – After the Normandy landings the Tapestry was transferred to Paris and kept in storage until after the liberation of Paris when it was put on display in the Louvre.

1945 – Tapestry returned to Bayeux where it has remained ever since. It was put back on permanent display on the first floor of the Bishop’s Palace across the street from the Bayeux Cathedral.

History

1982 – “The Tapestry remained in the Episcopal Palace until 1982, when, because of its increasing cache as a tourist attraction, it was moved into its own facility, converted from the Grand Seminary, where it remains today. Le Centre Guillaume Conquérant exhibits the Tapestry in a narrow U-shaped hallway; viewers enter on one side and always view the Tapestry on their left side only.

History

Such a mode of display allows the Tapestry to be easily maintained and secured -- it allows for centralized air conditioning, and in case of emergency, the work can be rolled up and removed from the building in a matter of minutes.

History

Unfortunately, however, the current mode of display denies audiences what was most certainly the original spatial context of the Tapestry, where viewers would have been surrounded on all sides by the work -- a context that emphasizes both the monumental impact of the work and William's achievement, as well as the Tapestry's own prototypical hypertextual format which allows thematic connections to be made simultaneously across the space of display” (Foys).