Bayeux Tapestry
Romanesque Europe. c. 1066-1080 C.E. Embroidery on linen
Romanesque Europe. c. 1066-1080 C.E. Embroidery on linen
The Bayeux Tapestry has been much used as a source for illustrations of daily life in early medieval Europe. It depicts a total of 1515 different objects, animals and persons . Dress, arms, ships, towers, cities, halls, churches, horse trappings, regal insignia, ploughs, harrows, tableware, possible armorial changes, banners, hunting horns, axes, adzes, barrels, carts, wagons, reliquaries, biers, spits and spades are among the many items depicted
Context:
- Shows the Battle of Hastings in 1066
- but begins with events leading up to it!!
- Shows the of England between William, the Duke of Normandy, and Harold, the Earl of Wessex that occurred in 1066
- in the end, William the Conquerer, or the Duke of Normandy won and became the first Norman king of England
- textile is missing its end which most likely showed William as king
- Bayeux Tapestry created in Canterbury 1070
- made within a generation of the war -- important because first that was made this close to the actual event
- believe the patron was Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, William's half-brother
- tapestry shows Normans nicely in the events
- Odo appears in many scenes with the inscription ODO EPISCOPUS (EPS)
- scenes believed been adapted from images in manuscripts illuminated at Canterbury
Function:
- to commemorate the win of the Normans (original)
- to give a (semi) accurate depiction of the war (now)
Form:
- not a true tapestry - not woven into the cloth
- imagery and inscriptions embroidered using wool yarn sewed onto linen cloth
- high quality of the needlework suggests that Anglo-Saxon embroiderers
- "A continuous narrative presents multiple scenes of a narrative within a single frame and draws from manuscript traditions such as the scroll form"
- "Eight colors can be made out from the tapestry; the five main colors are blue-green, terracotta, light-green, buff and grey-blue. There are also places where very dark blue, yellow and a dark green have been used. The color of skin has been left as the color of the linen."
- unrealistic figures
- 1 dimensional, flat, no depth or space perception
- but split into 3 sections (thin top and bottom and larger middle section) in an attempt to show depth/foreground and background
- top and bottom also function as boarders
Content:
- 75 scenes w/ latin inscriptions = tituli
- first meal: we see
- dining practices
- examples of armor used
- battle preparations
- servants prepare food over a fire and bake bread in an outdoor oven
- Servants serve the food
- Bishop Odo, blesses the meal
- "chickens on skewers, a stew cooked over an open fire and food from an outdoor oven. William sits down to a feast with his nobles and Bishop Odo says grace. Servants load food onto shields to carry it to the banquet"
- cavalry: we see
- William's use of cavalry
- cavalry could advance quickly and easily retreat
- scattering an opponent's defenses allowing the infantry to invade
- mainly cavalry meaning that they were most common
- they wear
- conical steel helmets with a protective nose plate
- mail shirts
- carry shields and spears
- foot soldiers
- carrying spears and axes
- horses have no armor
- mortally wounded men and horses along tapestry's mid and bottom
- "air fills with arrows and lances, men lie dying. The English soldiers, who are all on foot, protect themselves with a wall of shields. The Normans attack from both sides. The lower border of the tapestry is filled with dead and injured soldiers"
Cross-Cultural Comparison: Battle Scenes
- Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus
- Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace
- Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medieval-england/the-bayeux-tapestry/
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonial-americas/medieval-europe-islamic-world/a/bayeux-tapestry
http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk/Bayeux21.htm
