The Bayeux Tapestry and Romanesque Art in Western France

Abstract

Until now I have focused my inquiry on the people who may have been involved in the production of the Bayeux Tapestry and have based it on written sources. Now is the time to turn to the tapestry itself and see whether it offers any evidence supporting this hypothesis. The fact that it presents no obvious clues as to the name of the artist or the place and date of its production, and that there is no information to this effect in independent sources, has forced scholars to look for artistic resemblances in order to answer those questions. At the present time most point to stylistic similarities and “visual parallels” between the tapestry and illuminations in early-eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon manuscripts as the grounds for favoring England, most likely Saint-Augustine’s Canterbury, as the place of origin.¹ The principle proponent of a Norman origin (Bayeux) ,W Grape, cites both manuscript illuminations and mural paintings in churches in support of his thesis.²