The Bayeux Tapestry

Recently I have become interested in doing some needlepoint work. It has been a long time since I have put thread to canvas; it's enjoyable, but patient work. There are no shortcuts, if you want to have something beautiful and long-lasting when it is finished.

I have been doing some reading on the Battle of Hastings, and had an Aha! moment. Why not reproduce the Bayeux Tapestry?! Well, at least some scenes from it. The original is about 70 meters long! Time will tell if I take this on, but right now, it sounds tempting.

The tapestry depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England, involving William, Duke of Orange (The Conqueror), and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England. The climax is the Battle of Hastings. The tapestry chronicals the whole event, and is considered the supreme achievement of the Norman Romanesque period. It survives almost totally intact. It was embroidered with wool - all natural dyed colors, on linen. Along with the scenes are Latin titles. Probably produced in 1070 or there about. Its first reference was in 1476 when it was listed as inventory at the Bayeux Cathedral, in Norman France, and survived the sack of that city in 1562. But then, it was probably put away.

As far as the 18th Century is concerned, in 1724 there is reference to it when Antoine Lancelot sent a report to the  Acadeie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres about a sketch he had received about a work concerning William the Conqueror. He did not know if the sketch was of a sculpture or painting. Later on, a Benedictine scholar found more information, finding that the sketch was from a tapestry! In 1729 the scholar, Bernard de Montfaucon, published drawings and detailed information about the complete work, still at the Bayeux Cathedral.

During the French Revolution, 1792, the tapestry was confiscated as public property and used, of all things, to cover military wagons!!!Thank God, it was rescued by a local lawyer, storing it at his home, until the fighting was over. The Fine Arts Commission, after the Reign of Terror, helped to safeguard it as a national treasure. It was moved to Paris for display at the Musee Napoleon, but when Napoleon abandoned his invasion of Britian, in 1803, the work of art was again taken back to Bayeux where it remains today.