Bayeux tapestry. This so-called tapestry is in fact an embroidery that chronicles the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. It is a long, narrow strip of coarse linen, 230 ft by 20 in. (70 m by 51 cm), embroidered in worsteds of eight colors in couching and stem stitch. The embroidery is a valuable document on the history and the costumes of the time. Its provenance and date have long been disputed. Tradition attributes it to Queen Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, and her handmaidens; but it is now thought to be of somewhat later origin and possibly the work of English embroiderers. The embroidery is preserved in the Bayeux Museum.
Medieval embroidered tapestry depicting the Norman Conquest. Woven in woolen threads of eight colours on coarse linen, it is about 231 ft (70 m) long by about 20 in. (50 cm) wide. It consists of 79 consecutive scenes, with Latin inscriptions and decorative borders. Stylistically it resembles English illuminated manuscripts. It was probably woven c. 1066, within a few years of the conquest, and was possibly commissioned by Odo, bishop of Bayeux, brother of William I (the Conqueror). The most famous of all pieces of needlework, it hung for centuries in the cathedral in Bayeux (Normandy) and now hangs in the tapestry museum there.
Bibliography
See Sir Eric Maclagan, The Bayeux Tapestry (1945); F. Stenton et al., The Bayeux Tapestry (1957, repr. 1965).
Bayeux Tapestry
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English axman in combat with Norman cavalry during the Battle of Hastings, detail from the …
(credit: Giraudon/Art Resource, New York)
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