Palette, Pigments and Pictorial Narrative in 11th-Century England: The Use of Colour in the Bayeux Tapestry and the Old English Hexateuch

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.