Editing Bayeux Tapestry (section)

=== Artistic context ===
[[File:Tapís de la Creació- Tapís restaurat. Anvers.jpg|thumb|The [[Tapestry of Creation]] or [[Girona]] Tapestry (actually needlework), 11th-century, 3.65 m × 4.70 m (12.0 ft × 15.4 ft)]]
Tapestry fragments have been found in Scandinavia dating from the ninth century and it is thought that Norman and Anglo-Saxon embroidery developed from this sort of work. Examples are to be found in the [[Oseberg ship#Grave goods|grave goods of the Oseberg ship]] and the [[Överhogdal tapestries]].<ref name=musset/>

A monastic text from [[Ely, Cambridgeshire|Ely]], the ''[[Liber Eliensis]]'', mentions a woven narrative wall-hanging commemorating the deeds of [[Byrhtnoth]], killed in 991. Wall-hangings were common by the tenth century with English and Norman texts particularly commending the skill of Anglo-Saxon seamstresses. Mural paintings imitating draperies still exist in France and Italy and there are twelfth-century mentions of other wall-hangings in Normandy and France. A poem by [[Baldric of Dol]] might even describe the Bayeux Tapestry itself.<ref name=musset/> The Bayeux Tapestry was therefore not unique at the time it was created: rather it is remarkable for being the sole surviving example of medieval narrative needlework.<ref name="digby">{{cite book|last=Wingfield Digby|first=George|title=The Bayeux Tapestry|publisher=Phaidon Press|year=1965|editor-last=Stenton|editor-first=Frank|editor-link=Frank Stenton|edition=2nd|pages=37–55 (37, 45–48)|chapter=Technique and Production}}</ref>

Very few hangings from the 11th century survive, but the [[Tapestry of Creation]], or Girona Tapestry, is a large Romanesque panel of needlework, in the Museum of [[Girona Cathedral]], Catalonia, Spain. The hanging depicts a series of figures from the [[Book of Genesis]], and [[personification]]s of the month.  The [[Cloth of Saint Gereon]], in Germany, is the largest of a group of fragments from hangings based on decorative [[Byzantine silk]]s, including animals, that are probably the earliest European survivals.<ref>[https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O258448/tapestry-border-unknown/ Victoria and Albert Museum, "Tapestry Border"]; [[:File:Cloth of Saint Gereon fragment.jpg|Photo of the Cloth of Saint Gereon]].</ref>