Making Sense of the Bayeux Tapestry - (Studies in Design and Material Culture) by Anna Henderson (Hardcover)

About the Book

This volume brings together many aspects of the Tapestry: the practical skills involved in making the embroidery, aspects of its iconography, its first documented association with Bayeux in an inventory of 1476, its later copying and reproduction in different media and its role as a model for the production of stitched narrative friezes today.

Book Synopsis

This book aims to make sense of the Bayeux Tapestry by bringing together answers to a number of questions which this famous hanging presents to the viewer.

How did the embroiderers organise the stitching of the Bayeux Tapestry? Are its limited colours used with greater sophistication than viewers have recognised? What do we know of the Tapestry's supporting cast: naked figures in the margins and clerics present at events in the main register? Can we learn anything about the original purpose of the Tapestry from detailed examination of Bayeux Cathedral's 1476 Inventory, the first known reference to the Tapestry's existence? This book combines up-to-the-minute research with an introduction that draws on the contributors' personal observations in order to interrogate the Tapestry's enduring value. Bringing together contributions from leading specialists and newer voices in the field, it will be essential reading for students and scholars of the Bayeux Tapestry, medieval art and culture.

From the Back Cover

This book combines up-to-the-minute research with an introduction that draws on contributors' personal observations in order to interrogate the Tapestry's enduring value. Issues under consideration include how the embroiderers organised the stitching of the Tapestry and whether the limited colour palette was used with greater sophistication than viewers have hitherto recognised. What we know of the Tapestry's supporting cast is also discussed: specifically the naked figures in the margins and the clerics present at events in the main register. With regard to the context of its production: can we learn more about the original purpose of the Tapestry from detailed examination of Bayeux Cathedral's inventory of 1476, the first known reference to its existence? Finally, what do the numerous facsimiles generated from the time of its discovery to the present day, and the twentieth-century emergence of new histories embroidered in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry, tell us about its continuing relevance?

Making sense of the Bayeux Tapestry brings together contributions from leading specialists Gale Owen-Crocker, Shirley Ann Brown, Elizabeth Pastan, and the Tapestry's curator, Sylvette Lemagnen, together with newer voices in the field. The collection will be essential reading for students and scholars of the Bayeux Tapestry and medieval art and culture.

About the Author

Anna Henderson is a PhD student at the University of Manchester and was formerly Editor of the Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies series

Gale R. Owen-Crocker is Professor Emerita, formerly Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture, and Director of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies at the University of Manchester