Bayeux Tapestry fever sweeps London

After almost a thousand years, the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry is returning to Britain, to be seen here once again. 

The wool and linen embroidery records historical events leading up to the seminal 1066 Battle of Hastings, after which William Duke of Normandy in France, became king of England after the killing of the Anglo-Saxon leader Harold Godwinson.

The tapestry has been kept in the town of Bayeux in northern France for centuries and only been moved on a handful of occasions, to Paris. This exceptional loan by the French government is an immense coup for the UK and the British Museum.

Lloyd de Beer, the British Museum’s curator of Medieval Britain and Europe, told CGTN: “The most remarkable thing about the Bayeux Tapestry is that it survives at all.

“We're dealing here with an embroidered linen object from the 11th century. The fact that we are able to stand in front of it here today and that it survives at all is astonishing, considering it was never destroyed, it was never burnt, it was eaten by moths."

In a long, darkened hall, the fragile tapestry is laid out in all its 68-meter length, in specially-designed glass cases with low lighting to help preserve the ancient cloth.

There is a symbolic importance to these long wool and linen panels being returned to England, where it’s assumed it was embroidered 950 years ago, for new Norman overlords. The symbolism shouldn’t be underestimated, according to many historians, politicians and culture commentators.

Lloyd de Beer says the tapestry counts as a historical source. 

He said: “Often people like to talk about this object as a source. What does it tell us that matches the historical narrative? How does image deviate from literature? And what credence we give to that really is up to historians and has been debated ever since the tapestry was first rediscovered in the 18th century.”

Having seen the original in different settings - in Bayeux’s museum decades ago, an English-made replica that’s shown at the end of the Elizabeth Line in Reading and now the dramatic exhibition at the British Museum - it is easier to appreciate the visual storytelling and Latin inscriptions on the tapestry.

Some have described it as almost a cartoon-style thousand-year-old embroidery. It takes hours to appreciate all the details included, and a lifetime to understand the full historical narrative.

But it is easy to recognize the 737 animals in the tapestry. There are also 37 ships, 33 buildings and 621 men and boys stitched into the linen panels. But in its 58 scenes, only six women appear.

“In the machinations of what we see happening on the tapestry, this is the realm of men,” Dr Sue Brunning, the British Museum’s curator of early medieval history, told CGTN.

“But what is really important to point out is that while the women on the tapestry are not very visible visually, it's thought that women were actually responsible for the creation of the tapestry and the embroidery of the tapestry.”

The narrative, with its classical allusions and a Latin text, was aimed at the elite of the period, according to Lloyd de Beer.  

"The Bayeux Tapestry has been a political object since the moment it was created, it is a political narrative … for a very elite audience, an audience of spectators who could understand those kinds of references and ultimately probably an object that was displayed to some of the high-ranking people that participated in the invasion of England in 1066."

Without doubt it's one of France’s most prized and irreplaceable historical treasures. Its loan to the UK has raised a potentially awkward question for the UK. The Elgin Marbles - also known as the Parthenon Sculptures - have been coveted by the Greek Government for many years. Could they be returned or loaned to Athens? It won’t be a decision for a curator, but Sue Brunning sounds optimistic.

She said: "I think the museum has a very long history and a very active programme of loaning its objects to other places. And I think The Tapestry here shows what it's like when you show an object in a different context, when you sort of take it out of its usual home and you show it somewhere else."

This exhibition by the British Museum is touted as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The first batch of tickets sold out quickly, with another cluster going on sale in October and a further quantity early next year.

For those who fail to secure a ticket, there’s always the life sized replica that was embroidered by dozens of women in the 19th century.

“People always come here to see the replica,” says Matthew Williams, manager of Reading Museum which exhibits the English copy of the Bayeux Tapestry. “Since the publicity of the original coming to the British Museum, it's gone through the roof here. Tours are fully booked, we're getting groups booking all the way through to Christmas, the galleries are busy.”

Next summer, the Bayeux Tapestry with all its thousands of holes, stains and tears will be transported back to the town that carries its name in France. It will return into a renovated museum where it is likely to remain for decades to come.