Publications
Cut on the Norman bias: fabulous borders and visual glosses on the Bayeux Tapestry, by Daniel Terkla, published 1995 in Word & image: a journal of Verbal/Visual Enquiry (vol. 11, article, pp.264-290) View Online
. . . the tendency of artists to breach the supposed boundaries between temporal and spatial arts is not a marginal or exceptional practice, but a fundamental impulse in both the theory and practice of the arts, one which is not confined to any particular genre or period.
Harold Godwinson, King of England for nine months in 1066, was undeniably an assertive opportunist-albeit a brave one- and perhaps a traitor; Edward the Confessor was a misguided monarch - or at least a bad judge of character - and William of Normandy was a righteous conqueror, a ruler asserting his legal right to the English crown. This, at least, is the interpretation of historical events presented by the Bayeux Tapestry, the late eleventh-century embroidery that Otto Pacht has called the 'earliest work of secular art on a monumental scale which has survived from the Middle Ages.' In this study, I posit an interpretative program that shows how the Tapestry's Norman bias was manifested and emphasized by its designer's intratextual, interactive use of imaginal marginalia, specifically the eight appearances of the Norman chevrons and the pictographs representing the Tapestry's nine Aesopic fables.4 Each group of marginal images demonstrates, via its interaction with the main panel narrative, the permeability of the Tapestry's inscribed borders and the need for an inclusive reading, one which recognizes the futility of imaginal separation and the representational richness possible when the urge toward such narrative divisiveness is overcome.
Harold Godwinson, King of England for nine months in 1066, was undeniably an assertive opportunist-albeit a brave one- and perhaps a traitor; Edward the Confessor was a misguided monarch - or at least a bad judge of character - and William of Normandy was a righteous conqueror, a ruler asserting his legal right to the English crown. This, at least, is the interpretation of historical events presented by the Bayeux Tapestry, the late eleventh-century embroidery that Otto Pacht has called the 'earliest work of secular art on a monumental scale which has survived from the Middle Ages.' In this study, I posit an interpretative program that shows how the Tapestry's Norman bias was manifested and emphasized by its designer's intratextual, interactive use of imaginal marginalia, specifically the eight appearances of the Norman chevrons and the pictographs representing the Tapestry's nine Aesopic fables.4 Each group of marginal images demonstrates, via its interaction with the main panel narrative, the permeability of the Tapestry's inscribed borders and the need for an inclusive reading, one which recognizes the futility of imaginal separation and the representational richness possible when the urge toward such narrative divisiveness is overcome.
The Bayeux Tapestry: New Interpretations, edited by Martin Kennedy Foys, Karen Eileen Overbey and Dan Terkla, published 20 August 2009 (248 pp., Woodbridge: Boydell Press, ISBN-10: 1843834707 & ISBN-13: 9781843834700) accessible at: British Library
Abstract:In the past two decades, scholarly assessment of the Bayeux Tapestry has moved beyond studies of its sources and analogues, dating, origin and purpose, and site of display. This volume demonstrates the value of more recent interpretive approaches to this famous and iconic artefact, by examining the textile's materiality, visuality, reception and historiography, and its constructions of gender, territory and cultural memory. The essays it contains frame discussions vital to the future of Tapestry scholarship and are complemented by a bibliography covering three centuries of critical writings
The Bayeux Tapestry: New Approaches, edited by Michael J. Lewis, Gale R. Owen-Crocker and Dan Terkla, published 30 March 2011 (196 pp., Oxford: Oxbow Books, ISBN-10: 1842179764 & ISBN-13: 9781842179765) accessible at: British Library
Abstract:The Bayeux Tapestry, perhaps the most famous, yet enigmatic, of medieval artworks, was the subject of an international conference at the British Museum in July 2008. This volume publishes 19 of 26 papers delivered at that conference.
The physical nature of the tapestry is examined, including an outline of the artefact's current display and the latest conservation and research work done on it, as well as a review of the many repairs and alterations that have been made to the Tapestry over its long history.
Also examined is the social history of the tapestry, including Shirley Ann Brown's paper on the Nazi's interest in it as a record of northern European superiority and Pierre Bouet and François Neveux's suggestion that it is a source for understanding the succession crisis of 1066.
Among those papers focusing on the detail of the Tapestry, Gale Owen-Crocker examines the Tapestry's faces, Carol Neuman de Vegvar investigates the Tapestry's drinking vessels and explores differences in its feast scenes, and Michael Lewis compares objects depicted in the Tapestry and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 11.
The book also includes a résumé of four papers given at the conference published elsewhere and a full black and white facsimile of the Tapestry, with its figures numbered for ease of referencing.
The physical nature of the tapestry is examined, including an outline of the artefact's current display and the latest conservation and research work done on it, as well as a review of the many repairs and alterations that have been made to the Tapestry over its long history.
Also examined is the social history of the tapestry, including Shirley Ann Brown's paper on the Nazi's interest in it as a record of northern European superiority and Pierre Bouet and François Neveux's suggestion that it is a source for understanding the succession crisis of 1066.
Among those papers focusing on the detail of the Tapestry, Gale Owen-Crocker examines the Tapestry's faces, Carol Neuman de Vegvar investigates the Tapestry's drinking vessels and explores differences in its feast scenes, and Michael Lewis compares objects depicted in the Tapestry and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 11.
The book also includes a résumé of four papers given at the conference published elsewhere and a full black and white facsimile of the Tapestry, with its figures numbered for ease of referencing.