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Who made the Bayeux tapestry?

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by PaulRyckier (U1753522) on Monday, 12th September 2011

  Did years ago some research for this messageboard about the subject and came then at the "Mathilda story".
  
  Everywhere where you look on the internet they suppose that it was made in England and by local craftsmen (women)...
  Did some small study on internet this evening and to start the discussion found the following:
  
  
  
  If you look "inside" the Amazon book at the "Appendix A" you will see the reasons of the American author, why he believes that the tapestry was made in the Loire valley...and in Appendix B he tackles "the Mathilda story"...
  
  Kind regards,
  
  Paul.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Herewordless (U14549396) on Tuesday, 13th September 2011

  Paul, every source or scholarly book I have read state that English noblewomen sewed the 'Tapestry', as they were, even then, acknowledged experts.
  
  It it largely assumed that Bishop Odo (William's half-brother) commissioned it to be made, presumably for the opening of his Bayeux cathedral c.1077?
  
  Though Andrew Bridgeford's fascinating "1066: The hidden history of The Bayeux Tapestry" suggests that the curious 'subliminal' messages and images within it, more what it does NOT say, is that someone else (non-Norman? French?) commissioned it in order to either tell the 'truth of 1066, or to paint the Normans in a bad light.
  
  Odo is never shown as a religious figure, but military?
  
  Earl/King Harold- shown as regal and finely regailed- is apparently depicted as the heirarchical 'equal' of duke William in most scenes?
  
  Bayeux cathedral itself not in the Tapestry?? Bayeux is only shown as a castle, nowhere is the cathedral shown, which suggests it highly unlikely that it was made to dedicate it to Odo's Cathedral on 14th July 1077. It could easily have been depicted. Either the artist didn't conceive bayeux as a place with a cathedral- yet a great new church is shown, the largest building in the entire work- Westminster Abbey.
  
  Why does the Tapestry fail to boast the Norman succession case when it could (ie. The opening scene shows Edward sending Harold to Normandy, but fails to establish that he did so- in the ill-fated "oath" scene which is curiously muted, it could easily have added a phrase like "concerning the crown" but doesn't?)?
  
  The BT is not even eccliastical in tone- Odo isn't in his holy robes at any point- revealing it to be secular. It was likely made to be hung around the walls of one of odo's great interior halls.

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• Message 3

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  Posted by PaulRyckier (U1753522) on Friday, 16th September 2011

  Hereword,
  
  thank you for your reply. What do you think about the thesis of the American George Beech that the tapestry would have been made at the abbey of Saint-Florent of Saumur?
  Read for evidence the introduction of the first pages of the amazon book that I provided in this link:
  
  
  Kind regards,
  
  Paul.

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by Herewordless (U14549396) on Monday, 19th September 2011

  Thanks, Paul. I've heard the theories about France before. But why would French needle-craft workers display Westminster and not Bayeux Cathedral or Mont St.Michel?
  
  I'd have to read that entire book to be exact about it's content and the author's research, not to mention the history and culture of the Loire region he states the Tapestry was supposedly made in?
  
  But I certainly believe that, given the BT's overall tone and content, plus the 'hidden messages', curious imagery in the margins and, what it doesn't reveal or highlight, the BT was made commissioned and perhaps 'written' by a non-Norman, motives uncertain, dictated to English noblewomen, who maybe knew the principal characters?
  
  Cheers

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