Frontality: The Imperial Look from Christ the Pantocrator to Napoleon Bonaparte

I began to think about the question of frontality in front of the scene of Harold's coronation as it figures in the Bayeux Tapestry, an embroidered account of the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of 1066 and of the Battle of Hastings, sewn most probably in the decades following the event itself [figure 1]. Panel 73 contains the only image in the Tapestry's 230 feet of figures looking directly at the viewer. Archbishop Stigand faces forward in the emblematic pose of prayer such as can be found in works like an eleventh-century image of Saint Clement from the lower basilica of San Clemente in Rome or this image of Saint Apollinaris from the cathedral of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna [figure 2].

While the great majority of the Tapestry's 626 human figures are shown in strict profile with only half a face and one eye showing and a few are shown in some version of three-quarter view with a face partially averted, King Harold upon the throne is shown frontally. Seated and crowned, Harold holds what is not quite a scepter, but a rod, or "virga," in one hand and an orb topped by a cross in the other; his feet, set at an angle oblique to each other, rest upon a raised pedestal; his robe is draped in a "V damp fold"; the figure is contained, as in many of the Tapestry's interiors, by what seems like a constructed architectural frame.

The embroidered portrait of King Harold in majesty, in the tradition of the emperors of centuries past, puts him on a plane different

Fig. 1.

The coronation of Harold II; he receives sword and scepter. Bayeux Tapestry, embroidery.
Musée de la Tapisserie, Bayeux, France
Photo: Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY

from every other of the Tapestry's figures, which are in profile. The faces in profile, which include both horses and men, appear as if they were two-dimensional. In their alignment along the plane of action, the face and figure in profile are inscribed in time and move in the direction of history. They are oriented and point to a narrative climax at the Battle of Hastings. The same is true of the less frequent figures shown in three-quarter view whose two eyes we can see, though unlike Harold, they do not look back. On the contrary, their eyes seem to be looking at some other person, object, or activity along the Tapestry's horizontal scenic plane. Taking only such faces nearest the frontal Harold, what is surely the three-quarter Odo in panel 81 receives the order from William to construct the Norman fleet; the woodsman in panel 83 looks attentively at his coping ax; one of the three-quarter carpenters in the upper part of panel 84 appears to be handing something to his co-worker, while one of the carpenters in the lower portion of 84 works assiduously on the gunwales of a boat. The full face of Odo in the feasting just before battle in panel 112

Fig. 2.

Saint Apollinaris. Detail from the mosaic of Saint Apollinaris among sheep. Byzantine, ca. 533-549 CE.
S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna, Italy
Photo: Cameraphoto Arte, Venice / Art Resource, NY

casts its glance upon the others at table or the servants, but his visual field does not penetrate beyond the bounds of the Tapestry. Unlike Harold in majesty, Odo does not look back.

In looking back at the viewer, Harold assumes the full measure of kingly power. The image of the frontal saint, Christ, or emperor shares in the uncanny visual phenomenon of painted or embroidered or sculpted eyes that are recognizable because they are full-face, eyes fixed upon and intended for the beholder and not engaged with other figures within a pictorial space. Frontal figures interacted with each other only in so far as they were placed in niches or on curved surfaces, when, in other words, they face...