Bayeux Brouhaha

 I must admit to being rather mystified by all the brouhaha attending the display of the on-loan Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum. Surely if anyone was that interested they had only to hop over the Channel and take a look at it in situ in Bayeux. I was there some years ago, dutifully inspected it, and was frankly underwhelmed. Of course it has great historical importance and it's a remarkable survival, but as a work of art/craft it really isn't that great – certainly not when compared with the glorious embroidered work from the 12th to 15th century known as Opus Anglicanum. Seeing the exhibition devoted to this work at the V&A ten years ago was a vastly more rewarding and aesthetically enjoyable experience than walking the length of the dreary Bayeux Tapestry. I wrote about it here –

https://nigeness.blogspot.com/2016/10/english-beauty.html

And while we're on the subject of the Bayeux Tapestry, I wonder if the vexed question of how many penises it depicts has finally been settled. I do hope so...

https://nigeness.blogspot.com/2025/04/none-of-them-has-yellow-blob-at-end.html