One of our members went to France this summer and took a class at the museum where the tapestry is housed.

A little note - it is NOT a tapestry. Tapestries are woven. The Bayeaux Tapestry is embroidered. If you look at details photos, you can see the embroidery threads on top of the ground fabric:

Detail of stem stitching and laid work.

The Bayeux tapestry is embroidered in crewel (wool yarn) on a tabby-woven linen ground 68.38 metres long and 0.5 metres wide (224.3 ft × 1.6 ft) and using two methods of stitching: outline or stem stitch for lettering and the outlines of figures, and couching or laid work for filling in figures.[7][8] Nine linen panels, between fourteen and three metres in length, were sewn together after each was embroidered and the joins were disguised with subsequent embroidery.[18] At the first join (start of scene 14) the borders do not line up properly but the technique was improved so that the later joins are practically invisible.[18] The design involved a broad central zone with narrow decorative borders top and bottom.[18] By inspecting the woollen threads behind the linen it is apparent all these aspects were embroidered together at a session and the awkward placing of the tituli is not due to them being added later.[18] Later generations have patched the hanging in numerous places and some of the embroidery (especially in the final scene) has been reworked.[18] The tapestry may well have maintained much of its original appearance—it now compares closely with a careful drawing made in 1730.[18]

The main yarn colours are terracotta or russet, blue-green, dull gold, olive green, and blue, with small amounts of dark blue or black and sage green. Later repairs are worked in light yellow, orange, and light greens.[7] Laid yarns are couched in place with yarn of the same or contrasting colour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry#Construction.2C_design_and_technique

Stem stitching outlines the areas. Laid work is when a thread is run or laid along an area then couched or stitched down with a second thread. Most of the filled in areas of the piece are worked as laid work. The page at this site has a lovely discussion of the techniques and illustrations of the stitches: https://bayeux.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/embroidery/

charlyvi

(6,537 posts)

13. Yes indeed.

Reply to csziggy (Reply #10)

Sun Oct 16, 2016, 03:14 PM

Oct 2016

But it is still called a Tapestry through 950 years of common usage. Whenever discussing the Tapestry, though, historians do point out that it is actually an embroidery. I'm amazed at how vivid the colors still remain, and how it survived this long. The history of the Tapestry is fascinating.

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