THE (Claudine Vannier) (Extracts of Essay by Dr. Kristine Tanton from the Internet)

The is to visit the UK for the first time in its history ! After 950 years on French shores, President is expected to loan it to the UK but it won't arrive until 2020.

The Bayeux Tapestry provides an excellent example of Anglo-Norman art. It serves as a medieval artifact that operates as art, chronicle, political propaganda, and visual evidence of eleventh-century mundane objects, all at a monumental scale. This astounding work continues to fascinate.

Measuring twenty inches high and almost 230 feet in length, the Bayeux Tapestry commemorates a struggle for the throne of England between William, the Duke of , and Harold, the . The year was 1066— invaded and successfully conquered England, becoming the first Norman King of England.

The Bayeux Tapestry consists of seventy-five scenes with Latin inscriptions (tituli) depicting the events leading up to the and culminating in the in 1066. The textile's end is now missing, but it most probably showed the coronation of William as King of England.

Although it is called the Bayeux Tapestry, this commemorative work is not a true tapestry as the images are not woven into the cloth; instead, the imagery and inscriptions are embroidered using sewed onto cloth. The tapestry is sometimes viewed as a type of chronicle. However, the inclusion of episodes that do not relate to the historic events of the Norman Conquest complicate this categorization. Nevertheless, it presents a rich representation of a particular historic moment as well as providing an important visual source for eleventh-century textiles that have not survived into the twenty-first century.

The Bayeux Tapestry was probably made in around 1070. Because the tapestry was made within a generation of the Norman defeat of the Anglo-Saxons, it is considered to be a somewhat accurate representation of events. By the late Middle Ages, the tapestry was displayed at , which was built by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. Odo and half-brother of William, .

We do not know the identity of the artists who produced the tapestry. The high quality of the suggests that Anglo-Saxon embroiderers produced the tapestry. Many of the scenes are believed to have been adapted from images in manuscripts illuminated at Canterbury. The artists skillfully organized the composition of the tapestry to lead the viewer's eye from one scene to the next and divided the compositional space into three horizontal zones. The main events of the story are contained within the larger middle zone. The upper and lower zones contain images of animals and people, scenes from Aesop's Fables, and scenes of husbandry and hunting. The seventy-five episodes depicted present a continuous narrative of the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and the battle itself.

The embroiderers' attention to specific details provides important sources for scenes of eleventh-century life as well as objects that no longer survive. In addition to depicting military tactics used in the Norman Conquest, the scene also provides visual evidence for eleventh-century battle gear.