The Rhetoric of Power in the Bayeux Tapestry (review)

Reviews 225 Lewis, Suzanne, The Rhetoric of Power in the Bayeux Tapestry (Cambridge Studies in N e w Art History and Criticism), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999; cloth; pp. xv, 169; 44 b / w illustrations; R.R.P. AUS$90.00; ISBN 05216323822. This is the latest of many books and articles to focus on the Bayeux Tapestry. As Suzanne Lewis admits, it does not seek to redress a perceived flaw in previous scholarship, but instead offers up a close reading, a deconstruction of the art object as text. To do this, she uses recent film theory and poststructuralist theoretical approaches to examine 'how history is not reflected in images but produced by them' (p. xiii). She draws on the insights of such writers as Barthes and Bakhtin to examine in practical ways h o w narrative operates within the Bayeux Tapestry to construct its vision of this crucial moment in European history. Lewis is particularly well suited to this task. A m o n g s t her publications are major studies on the Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris and Reading Images: Narrative Discourse and Reception in the Thirteent Century Illuminated Apocalypse (Cambridge, 1995). A s such, she is wellversed in both medieval historiography and poststructuralist writings on narratology. She does not debate where or w h e n it was produced or the identity of the artist, accepting that its Canterbury origin was well established. She would argue that the internal evidence suggests that the work was probably produced between 1077 and 1082, w h e n its patron Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and earl of Kent, as well as half-brother to William, was at his most powerful in England (p. 125). This stepping outside of the debates over provenance and dating is refreshing, allowing her to focus on a detailed reading of the contents of the tapestry. The Bayeux Tapestry itself is a very suitable choice for this type of reading; familiar to most art historians, its unique format also recalls both medieval narrative literature and contemporary film. It is enigmatic in nature for, although the visual imagery is accompanied by descriptive texts, these are frequently neutral in tone, leaving the viewer the task of interpreting the message of the scenes. The open-ended nature of these texts is best seen in the representation of the crucial oath-taking scene, where Harold, according to N o r m a n sources, vowed to support William of Normandy's claim to the English throne. The text simply records that Harold swore an oath on relics. It is thus possible to interpret this work 226 Reviews from either a N o r m a n or an Anglo-Saxon perspective. The Bayeux Tapestry tangibly demonstrates h o w silences can be as significant as the presentation of action. Lewis argues that this is a deliberate ploy by the designer. H o w he negotiated the still controversial events leading up to the Battle of Hastings, accommodating both positions and yet s t i l l reinforcing the inevitability of the N o r m a n conquest of England is the subject of this analysis. To examine the strategies taken by the designer, Lewis compares the tapestry to the related genres of history, epic and panegyric. This comparison highlights the crossover between storytelling techniques in both the visual and text-based artforms, highlighting similarities in structures, for example in the rich sequence of set pieces that advance the narrative. In the following two chapters she then explores the narrative strategies and structures used in the tapestry, most effectively in her close analysis of particular sequences of events, such as the opening scenes with Harold and Edward the Confessor at Westminster, Harold's expedition to Normandy, and his encounters with Duke William. Lewis demonstrates h o w the designer uses references to fables and to protocols of behaviour to build up a sense of unease in his portrait of Harold. For example, the appearance of hunting dogs and hawks in Harold's journey to Normandy, while establishing him as a member of the aristocracy, also marks him as one w h o usurps others' privileges, at least in the...