Professor Helps Shed New Light on Renowned Bayeux Tapestry

The Bayeux Tapestry captured a pivotal moment in European history. The 230-foot-long embroidered cloth, which depicts events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and scenes from the battle iself, is renowned among scholars of medieval history, art and literature.

Illinois Wesleyan University Professor of English Dan Terkla is helping to uncover the mysteries of the Tapestry with the new book The Bayeux Tapestry: New Interpretations (Boydell & Brewer, 2009).

“History is written by the victors, and the Tapestry is a great piece of public relations,” said Terkla, who co-edited the collection of essays for the book, and contributed his own chapter. In the case of the Bayeux Tapestry, the victor was William of Normandy, who defeated King Harold I of England at the Battle of Hastings.

Thought to be embroidered around 1068, the Tapestry tells the story of how William the Conqueror ascended to the throne of England as the rightful king, and portrays Harold as a usurper.

Bayeux Tapestry Cover

Edited by Terkla, Martin Foys and Karen Eileen Overbey, the book is a collection from a combination of well-established scholars and voices new to Tapestry studies, said Terkla. “We truly hope to live up to the title of the book, New Interpretations,” he said.

“Not only does the book take a multi-disciplinary approach, with scholars from fields ranging from history to art to Anglo-Saxon studies contributing, but its particular mix of seasoned and young scholars can provide a new perspective.”

Terkla’s chapter, titled “From Hastingus to Hastings and Beyond: Inexorable Inevitability on the Bayeux Tapestry,” situates the Norman invasion of 1066 in a context that reaches back to the first Viking ruler in Normandy, Hastingus, forward to William and the Norman invasion, and beyond to the broader history of Norman conquests.

Setting the Tapestry in this broad context causes one to wonder, as Terkla does, “Did Hastingus’s presence in Normandy set into motion an inevitable link that runs all the way to William?” He argues that the Tapestry’s design creates a sense of historical inevitability through its use of line.

Read complete article in IWU.edu

The Bayeux Tapestry, Napoleon and the Nazis

University of Leicester

The Bayeux Tapestry is an 11th century Norman interpretation of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and one of the many mysteries surrounding it is why this iconic eleventh-century source has been so coveted by modern dictators.

Dr Carola Hicks, a former fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge, lecturer in Art History at Cambridge, and a prolific author of many books on medieval history and art history, will be pondering this question in a public lecture to take place at the University of Leicester on Wednesday 18th March at 6pm.

Dr Hicks will discuss the way in which the story told by the Tapestry was appropriated by later regimes, who sought to reinterpret the past in the light of contemporary political and military goals.

Her research has taken her to the archives of the Nazi regime, including personal letters from Himmler showing that he coveted the Tapestry as a key piece of evidence to link contemporary Nazi ideology with the Viking past (and the conquest of the British Isles).

Napoleon too realised its propaganda value in support of his own military ambitions against the English people.

Dr Joanna Story, Senior Lecturer in Early Medieval History, and co-organiser of the Medieval Research Centres public lecture series commented: “The past is (as any student of history, archaeology or literature knows well) constantly being re-interpreted and reshaped, often to fit modern political or cultural objectives. In her lecture Dr Hicks will show us how one of the most iconic, recognisable pieces of medieval story-telling, was coveted by dictators in the modern era.”

Dr Carola Hicks is an expert in the reception and (re)-interpretation of medieval sources, buildings and objects in later centuries. Two of her most recent books include The Kings Glass (2007 – abridged for Radio 4) and The Bayeux Tapestry: The Life Story of a Masterpiece (2006), which reveals the mystery, secrets and continuing fascination of the 70m tapestry, worked nearly 1000 years ago and still a vibrant example of pictorial storytelling.

Dr Hicks groundbreaking book on the Bayeux Tapestry explores the way in which generations of people have interpreted this iconic object in the centuries after the eleventh-century Norman Conquest of Anglo-Saxon England. The Tapestry tells a pro-Norman version of the events that led up to Duke Williams victory against the Anglo-Saxon armies in 1066.

The lecture is open to all comers, and is particularly recommended for undergraduate and graduate students of History, Archaeology and English who are interested in the ways in which the past is shaped, reshaped and retold – often for nefarious political motives.

The Medieval Research Centre is a forum for all students and staff at the University of Leicester whose work focuses on the sources and interpretation of the Middle Ages (School of Historical Studies, School of Archaeology and Ancient History, School of English).

http://www.le.ac.uk/arts/medieval/

The activities of the MRC include the annual series of Public Lectures, of which this lecture is a part, as well as a research seminar series. The final lecture in the 2009 series, The Matter of Fulk: Romance and History in Fourteenth Century England? will be given by Professor Ralph Hanna, of the University of Oxford, on Wednesday 6th May.

Dr Carola Hickss talk,The Bayeux Tapestry, Napoleon and the Nazis will take place at the University of Leicester Attenborough Lecture Theatre 2 (Film Theatre) on Wednesday 18th March 2009, 6.00pm. It is open to the public and free of charge.

Taken From InLoughBorough.com

'Creation Story' Evolves On Fabric

Artist tells nearly forgotten past in distinctive process

By Dorothy Shinn
Beacon Journal art & architecture critic

Today, many of us will sit glued to our TV sets as we wait to see on whom the Oscars will be bestowed, and to which among all the stories told the golden statue will be awarded.

We all have stories, some from our childhood, some from adulthood and some from our old age. Many of them are even good enough to write down. But not all of us have the focus and talent to make those stories into works of art, nor do we all realize that stories don't always get told in books or at the movies.

Sometimes stories get told in paint, line and figure. And sometimes stories, magnificent stories, get told in the unique and unmatched way one individual puts odd, old and unconventional materials together.

The Akron Art Museum is displaying the work of such a talent in an exhibit that reveals the focus, energy and sense of mission needed to compose memories into incredible, three-dimensional, multimedia narratives that have thrilled art lovers since the early 1980s.

Through April 5, the museum is exhibiting Along Water Street: New Work by Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, a mixed-media ''creation story'' pieced together from 1984 to 2007, based on tales she'd heard from her Uncle Alvin from the time she could first remember (at age 3 in 1943) until his death in 1990.

Organized by the Columbus Museum of Art, the exhibit reflects Robinson's memories of now-lost neighborhoods in Columbus along the Scioto River, as well as the universal themes of migration, community and family reminiscences.

She has stitched these stories together with others and her own belief in evolution, using her distinctive layering process, combining rags, buttons, shells and other found objects with her own drawings and paintings on handmade paper.

The Akron Art Museum, the site of Robinson's first solo museum show in 1987, is the first stop on the four-museum tour (all in Ohio) of this exhibit, which consists of 12 rag paintings, one watercolor and a form unique to Robinson that she calls ''RagGonNon,'' or artwork that just ''keeps on ragging on and on.''

The RagGonNon in this exhibit is a 60-foot-long cloth and mixed-media work encrusted with buttons, beads, men's ties, sashes and scarves, handmade dolls and spirit packets, and at least one long skinny item that closely resembles a shed snakeskin.

These pieces take years to research, assemble and create, because they continue to evolve in response to others' responses to them. This particular RagGonNon began in 1984 and expresses themes of creation, discovery, acceptance and community.

The exhibit reconstructs the history of the largely forgotten Columbus neighborhood called Water Street.

Uncle Alvin was Alvin Frederick Zimmerman, Aminah's mother's oldest sibling and only brother. His memories were in turn based on the stories he heard from his great-uncle Bill Taylor, who owned a bait shop on Water Street in an area that is now in the heart of downtown Columbus.

This area along the Scioto River was inundated during the Flood of 1913, the same flood that destroyed the Ohio & Erie Canal, one of the worst natural disasters in Ohio's history.

''In 1938, Water Street was renamed Marconi Boulevard, and after that the Water Street community was completely forgotten,'' said Allison Tillinger Schmid, Akron Art Museum assistant curator.

''Uncle Alvin's stories are combined with stories she looked up in the Columbus Library, plus stories that are more urban folklore. Uncle Alvin told stories of Native Americans greeting Africans in the 1200s in a place called Chipo Village. She couldn't find any reference to that village existing in the Ohio Valley area, but she uses it anyway.

''She goes back and forth in time, using a technique called Sankofa, which means looking to the past in order to move forward.''

Robinson's RagGonNon has the mixture of observation and oral history similar to that found in the Bayeux Tapestry, where closely examined vignettes lie cheek by jowl with lavishly embroidered fancies. For Robinson, however, Water Street is no fancy, but a metaphor for the larger story of African-Americans migrating to and from the Ohio Valley.

Her memories, her knowledge of and loyalty to her community and appreciation of the past have driven her to record these stories in a way that causes all of us to want to listen, to remember, to put down and pass on our own stories.

That, of course, is only one aspect of our attraction to this work. Visitors interested in working with fabric have been particularly responsive to this exhibit, as have those who are intrigued by artworks made up of unconventional materials.

The watercolor and the rag paintings have been framed, whereas the RagGonNon has been ''skied,'' hung in one continuous course above them.

Just as there are many layers of materials, methods and perspectives in her work, there are many ways of appreciating it.

Students from Akron's Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts, for instance, have borrowed Robinson's RagGonNon format to create their own project, One South High: Collaborative Works by Miller South Students Inspired by the Art of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, which is on display in the Akron museum's Mary S. and David C. Corbin Foundation Gallery through March 22.

These youngsters and others who want to discuss Robinson's work will be able to do so in person when she gives a free lecture from 2 to 3 p.m. March 22 at the museum, along with the Columbus Museum of Art's Carole Genshaft and the Akron museum's Barbara Tannenbaum.

In an interview last year with Genshaft, Robinson explained the RagGonNon in this show.

''The white cloth with stitching that begins this RagGonNon is a Memory Map that has not yet been fully designed, but the voices are beginning to take shape, crossing all the boundaries of the universe,'' Robinson said. ''The voices of humanity are being shaped by God. I have tried to show the migratory flux of people going back and forth in time and the evolution of these communities.

''I show the people nestled in the Ohio Valley peering out as if to reach out to a new dawn, a new beginning.

''It is also about the system of Black Laws that made African-Americans invisible, even though we helped to build the country. . . . I have also included the Farmlands, Mount Vernon Avenue and the communities. From all these places, the ancestors' voices emerge, and they are still emerging.''

In addition to the extensive amount of work that focuses on Columbus, Robinson has created other narrative series based on the people and places she has visited, such as her residencies in Kenya, Senegal, Egypt, Israel and Chile, and more recently, Italy and Peru.

Her work reflects not only the formal training she received at the Columbus Art School (now the Columbus College of Art and Design), but also the traditional skills — papermaking, needlework — passed down to her by the elders of her family.

Robinson was a 2004 recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called Genius Grant. The Columbus Museum of Art is developing a permanent center devoted to the study of her work.

Western Reserve PBS, in collaboration with the Akron Art Museum, has produced a documentary about Robinson that includes insightful interviews with the artist, who talks about the stories and experiences behind her works, as well as the teachers and students who created the Miller South project.

The program is available at http://www.westernreservepublicmedia.org and is being played continuously in the Akron museum's video box, along with a video on photographer Edward Weston.

''One's life does not begin with oneself,'' Robinson says at the beginning of her video. ''I stand on their shoulders, their stories, their gifts, and they allow me to continue the work.''

---

Dorothy Shinn writes about art and architecture for the Akron Beacon Journal. Send information to her at the Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640 or dtgshinn@neo.rr.com.

Taken From Ohio.com

The Bayeux Tapestry

Because of William I of England's victory in the 1066 Battle of Hastings, he was known as William the Conqueror. His previous moniker was William the Bastard because he was an illegitimate child of Robert I, the Duke of Normandy.

He had two other brothers to his mother, Herleva, both of which from other fathers. He succeeded his father in 1035 at a young age of eight. King Henry I of France knighted William, who was then only 15-years-old.

From then, he became a formidable leader and a strong warrior. When he was 19-years-old, he had already successfully defended Normandy from invasion and rebellion. Even Henry I himself felt envious of William's power and tried to invade Normandy, but the attempts failed.

When England's Edward the Confessor died, William felt he was the rightful successor to his throne. For one, it was said the Edward had promised him the throne when he visited London in 1052.

Also, Harold was said to have pledged alliance to William when he came to Normandy in 1064, two years before the Battle of Hastings. Harold was knighted by William after they successfully defeated Brittany's Conan II. Feeling betrayed by the late Edward and the newly-crowned Harold, William, with a fleet of ships and a formidable armada, went to England to fight.

This account is clearly illustrated in the Bayeux Tapestry. In the last panels of the Bayeux Tapestry, it was shown that the Normans had the upper hand of the battle. The Normans, as illustrated in the tapestry, killed Harold's brothers.

It also showed Bishop Odo, William's half-brother, fighting along side William's armada. In a panel, William fell from his horse but was very much alive and still able to fight. He then raised his helmet and encouraged his men to continue fighting, after which it was shown that Harold was defeated.

There were at least three figures in the tapestry that illustrated how Harold died, making the cause of his death vague when using the Bayeux Tapestry as basis. On one scene, Harold had an arrow sticking out in his eye, while another figure ha Harold speared with a spear.

There was another figure with legs hacked off which was presumed to be Harold. Although it is not clear, how Harold died (either he died of any of these causes, or he experienced all three fates), what was clear was that William and the Normans had won.

While the last section of the Bayeux Tapestry was said to be lost, it is assumed that this missing section deals with the coronation of William after he made the English magnates submit to him.

The Bayeux Tapestry is a work-of-art and tells a historic event in 77 panels. These panels are woven into wall hangings for individual hanging in the home or schools, to educate the children. The original Bayeux tapestry is 230' long and 20" high.

Alex Hanson writes articles to help the artists and their crafts from around the world survive just a little bit better and is supportive of high quality decor for the home that might push some power to skilled workers offering artistic works-of-art.

Decor4u.com offers European Tapestries and other wall art such as The Bayeux Tapestry.

The Bayeux Tapestry - Controversy Rages On

The practice of reproducing tapestry art for use in the home is becoming more popular by the year. The versatility of tapestry lends itself easily to use for a more substantial version of masterpieces. Among the many reproductions of famous artwork sometimes seen in living rooms are scenes from a work known as the Bayeux Tapestry.

The Bayeux Tapestry has been the source of much controversy over the centuries since the Norman Conquest. Strictly speaking, it's not a tapestry at all, but a series of embroidered panels stretching some 230 feet in length. It has long been held up as one of the most authentic historic accountings of William the Conqueror's invasion of Britain.

There is enough muddle over its commission, origin and authenticity to spur vigorous debate at many a dinner party or soiree. Portions of the 'tapestry' are well known enough to be easily recognizable, and the events that took place are clearly depicted. How accurate the portrayal is has oft been brought into question, however.

The Tapestry's Origin
The commission of the tapestry has alternately been assigned to various parties. Some attribute it to William's devoted wife Mathilde, who was said to have stitched it with her ladies in waiting. They point to one Aethelflaed, widow of Byrhtnoth, Earl of Essex who died in the Battle of Malden in 991. Aethelflaed commissioned a tapestry of her husband's last stand in honor of Byrhtnoth, and presented it to the Ely Cathedral.

A more plausible explanation perhaps is that William's half-brother, the Bishop Odo of Bayeux, directed that the tapestry be embroidered in England by Saxon nuns. Others maintain the work was done in Winchester itself. Certainly the tapestry is of the right length to surround the nave of the Bayeux Cathedral, and the stitching is comparable to premier English needle workers of the time.

The tapestry itself has several prominent scenes which have been reproduced for home interior use. Harold's preparations for the invasion is one, the launching of William's fleet to set sail for Britain and his subsequent landing comprise two more. The Battle of Hastings which concludes the existing tapestry is particularly favored as a reproduction.

Historical Accuracy In Doubt
Still more debate rages over the actual historical value of the tapestry, seeing as how it was commissioned by the victors and understandably can be expected to be slanted hard in their favor. There is no solid description of the Norman conquest from the invaded countrymen's point of view, and nearly all of the information we have of the event is gleaned from the tapestry itself.

The Normans maintain that William had received an oath of support from Harold, brother-in-law of Edward the Confessor, after William had rescued Harold from shipwreck. When Harold ascended to the throne of England upon Edward's death, William invaded citing Harold's breach of faith as the reason.

Historians differ in their acceptance of this version of events. The only collaboration of Harold's oath ever occurring is in a Norman account dating a full ten years after the invasion. This naturally falls under the same suspicion as it is likely the Normans would paint themselves in the best possible light despite the real facts of the matter.

Be that as it may, the panels showing Harold swearing allegiance and later being killed are among some of the most well known panels. The controversy lingers - The panel showing the Prince's death holds some ambiguity as to how he actually died.

Tradition holds that it was an arrow through the eye that took him out, but the embroidered words on the tapestry are ambiguous both in context and placement.

Tapestry Still Worth Consideration
Some things in the tapestry ring undeniably true; the appearance of Halley's comet is chronologically correct, and the castles of the time are depicted inside and out with what seems to be reasonable accuracy based on excavations of similar sites.

It is likely that there is as much truth as propaganda in the tapestry as a whole, much like many other historic documents written from one side's point of view.

When looking at the panels available as reproductions, you should decide which portion of the story you wish to concentrate on. Most of the research concerning the Norman conquest is based on the tapestry itself, so don't expect to find much more than general suppositions.

One thing you can count on is for the controversy to continue. Whatever the panel or panels you choose for your home, you can rest assured your selected portion of the Bayeux Tapestry will quickly become a conversation piece and a valuable, interesting addition to your home.

Copyright © The Tapestry House, all rights reserved.

Angela Dawson-Field writes on a number of subjects for the Tapestry House including the Bayeux Tapestry and other Medieval tapestry wall hangings

The Bayeux Tapestry - A Brief History

Certainly one of the most magnificent embroidered works in all of history, the Bayeux Tapestry is 20 inches tall and 230 feet long. Through its many panels, it tells the story of the events surrounding the battle of Hastings, which took place on Oct. 14, 1066.

It was there that the Norman Conquest unfolded. On the one side the Anglo-Saxons, led by Harold Godwinson, recently crowned the King of England. Pitted against his army were the Normans, led by William the Conqueror. Even today, you can tell who is who in the tapestry. The Normans are shown with their heads shaved while the Anglo-Saxons have mustaches.

Amazingly, the Bayeux Tapestry contains the images of more than 600 humans, 35 dogs, some 200 horses, 41 ships, 500 other animals and 2,000 words in Latin.

Technically, the Bayeux Tapestry is not really a tapestry at all. The original was embroidered, not woven. But that doesn't affect its value to historians and art lovers in the least.

The tapestry is believed to have been commissioned by William's half brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux and was to be displayed in the Bayeux Cathedral to commemorate his brother's bold victory. The tapestry was first mentioned in 1476 in an inventory of the cathedral. Two missing panels are believed to have shown William ascended to the throne of England.

The Bayeux Tapestry remained in the cathedral from more than 400 years, and then little is known of it for the next 300. The masterpiece almost ended its days as a cover for goods on a wagon. During the French Revolution, there was a serious shortage of cloth and a villager remembered there was some old cloth in the church. Lambert Leonard Leforestier saw what was happening and offered his own cloth as a trade for the priceless cathedral tapestry.

At one time, it was believed that Napoleon had used the tapestry to plan his own invasion of England. He had had the Bayeux Tapestry removed from the cathedral at one point and transported to Paris.

A replica of the tapestry is on display at the Museum of Reading in England. The brainchild of Elizabeth Wardle, a skilled embroiderer, she began her effort to reproduce the work after visiting the original in 1885. She felt strongly that England should have its own Bayeux Tapestry.
Thirty-five members of the Leek Embroidery Society completed the replica in a year.

As a nod to the morality of the Victorian era, the Museum of Reading reproduction has a naked figure that is in the original covered with clothing to cover his privates. Otherwise, the two works are almost identical.

Today, the original Bayeux Tapestry has been returned to its rightful home, the Bayeux Cathedral. There, it is proudly displayed in the village of Bayeux in Normandy, France and is open to tourists.

Individual panels and sections of the Bayeux Tapestry have been reproduced for home display as well. Chronicling specific key events within the battle, each tapestry is a faithful reproduction of the original and allows homeowners the chance to not only bring a magnificent work of art into their home, but a piece of European history as well.

Want impressive wall art for your home? Then see this fine collection of the latest tapestry wall hangings for ideas to inspire your imagination. Tom Matherson writes for Worldwide Tapestries where you can find a superb range of medieval tapestries and wall decor and other art tapestries to decorate your home.

by Tom Matherson