The Bayeux Tapestry

Sometimes it proves easier to understand contemporary art through the lens of great classic pieces from throughout history. In studying examples from our ancestors, we can not only cultivate a more full understanding of their lives, but of our own as well. In studying ancient art, we form a fuller grasp of the basic structures in art, the original influences of the masters , and sometimes, if we are lucky, a glimpse into the artistic world of today. One such case is that of the Bayeux tapestry.

The History of the Bayeux Tapestry is a complex one perhaps almost as complex as the contextual history from which it is derived. In looking at the remaining part of the tapestry, however, we are witness to the art form from which it emerged, as well as the time, place, and attitude towards such from which we find the tapestry.

Of course, we use the term "tapestry" loosely, as it has been used throughout history to describe this particular work of art. As Dodwell explains:

Although it has always been improperly identified as a tapestry, it is an embroidery. The item was made by Anglo-Saxon embroiders, probably in Canterbury between 1066 and 1082. It was commissioned by Odo, earl of Kent and Bishop of Bayeux (as well as half-brother of William the Conqueror), in order to celebrate the Norman conquest of England and the preparing events, especially emphasizing the role played by Odo himself. The Bayeux Tapestry is an historical record, but it is to be interpre

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oday. Since Danish law and custom prevailed therein, all territory north of this line became known as the Danelaw. One of the Danes who ended up in control of the Danelaw was Canute. In 1042, however, his hine ended, and the throne reverted to the West-Saxon dynasty with Edward the Confessor, whose concern about his successor opens the tapestry's tale. Edward the Confessor inherited a realm that combined features from the Danish north and the Saxon south. He kept Canute's bodyguard, as a standing army paid for by a special tax. The tapestry shows these professional household troops as the backbone of Harold's army. The Danish jarl became an earl, who controlled a major region, such as Codwin's earldom of Wessex. His deputy in each shire was the shire reeve, or sheriff. Below him stood the thanes, warrior nobles, each supported by an estate of five farms that might've contained a church, a kitchen, a bell house, and a gate. Unlike the Norman knight, the thane usually owned his land. One held 70 villages, most inherited from his father. Peasants in the villages lived in cottages where the family cooked and slept in a single room. The three main classes were the churl, or freeman, the serf, obliged to till his lord's land; and the

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