Palette, pigments and pictorial narrative in 11th-century England: the use of colour in the Bayeux Tapestry and the Old English Hexateuch

Lewis, Michael; Gameson, Richard

Palette, pigments and pictorial narrative in 11th-century England: the use of colour in the Bayeux Tapestry and the Old English Hexateuch

Resource type

Journal article

Creator (person)

Lewis, Michael

ORCID

Gameson, Richard

Date published

December 31, 2024

Abstract

This article examines how colour was used as a tool of pictorial narrative in the Bayeux Tapestry and the illustrated Old English Hexateuch, the two longest such cycles to survive from 11th-century England. The dyes employed for the former and the pigments of the latter are identified; the palettes that they permitted their respective artists to realize are set out; the colouring of cognate scenes are compared; and the general principles (such as they were) that affected the deployment of colour in the two works are explained.