UNKNOWN WEAVER, English
(active c. 1080)

The Bayeux Tapestry (Battle of Hastings, detail)

c. 1080
Wool embroidered on a linen background
Musée de la Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde, Bayeux

Exceptionally, medieval artists would sometimes convey the full horror of war. Among the most vivid examples is one of the earliest: the Bayeux Tapestry, made in the years after the Norman conquest of England. Here the Battle of Hastings is depicted in harrowing detail - dismembered corpses, crushed bodies and injured horses.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.