Famous Tapestries in History and What Designers Can Learn From Them

The most famous tapestry in the world is not a tapestry. The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidery, wool yarn stitched onto linen, about 70 meters (230 feet) long and roughly 50 centimeters (20 inches) tall. A true tapestry is woven, with the colored weft threads forming the picture as the cloth is made. Both belong in a designer's study list, because they solved problems every pattern maker still faces: how to tell a story, fill a surface and keep a design legible from across a room.

Made in the 1070s, probably in England, the Bayeux work tells the story of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 as one continuous strip. Its borders above and below carry animals and fables, and Halley's Comet appears in the sky. It was worked mainly in stem stitch and laid-and-couched work, in a small set of wool colors that include several blues and greens, a red and a yellow.

The lesson: a long border and a narrow story band can organize a wide format. A frieze is a repeat that moves in one direction, which is the logic of a border or trim pattern.

The Apocalypse Tapestry in Angers was commissioned by Louis I of Anjou and made in the late fourteenth century. Its images were drawn by the royal painter Jean de Bondol, working from an illuminated manuscript of the Book of Revelation, and then woven. The scenes alternate red and blue grounds, which gives a rhythm across the whole length.

The lesson: alternating backgrounds. Two ground colors in sequence will carry a long format better than one.

Two late medieval sets stand out. The Hunt of the Unicorn is at The Met Cloisters in New York, with seven hangings woven in the southern Netherlands around 1500. The Lady and the Unicorn is at the Musée de Cluny in Paris, six hangings made in the late fifteenth century in Flanders from designs drawn in Paris. Both use the millefleur background, small flowering plants scattered over a deep ground.

The lesson: millefleur is the ancestor of the modern ditsy floral. To draw one, pick six to eight small plant species at 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm), scatter them in a half-drop on a dark ground, and keep similar flowers from touching. Add small animals as accents. The medieval patterns category covers this territory.

A palette from this tradition: deep blue #1F2F5C, madder red #A33A32, weld yellow #D9B13B, green #4C6B3A, ivory #EDE3C8.

In 1515 Pope Leo X commissioned a set of tapestries of the Acts of the Apostles for the Sistine Chapel. Raphael drew full-size paper cartoons, which were sent to Brussels and woven by the workshop of Pieter van Aelst in wool and silk with gold-wrapped thread. Seven of the cartoons survive and are held by the V&A in London on loan from the Royal Collection.

The lesson: the cartoon system. A designer draws the whole image at full size, and weavers translate it into thread. That is the same handoff as a designer sending a file to a mill.

In 1662 the French crown consolidated its royal tapestry production in the Gobelins manufactory in Paris, with Charles Le Brun as director from 1663. It produced hangings glorifying Louis XIV on a large scale. The manufactory still weaves today.

The lesson: a unified house style across many products, built by one art director, is not a new idea.

William Morris revived tapestry weaving at Merton Abbey; the Holy Grail tapestries of the 1890s were designed by Edward Burne-Jones, with Morris and John Henry Dearle contributing the flowers and foliage. See Arts and Crafts movement designers. In the twentieth century the French artist Jean Lurçat helped revive tapestry in Aubusson, working with a deliberately limited palette. For more on modern weaving, read Bauhaus weavers and textile artists.

• Plan the format first. Long frieze, tall hanging or all-over ground each need different rules.
• Limit the colors. Weavers worked with a small set of dyed yarns, and the restraint is the beauty.
• Fill with small things. Flowers, birds and rabbits make a ground feel alive without competing with the main figure.

For woven textures, try the woven patterns and art patterns categories. In Pattern Weaver you can describe a millefleur ground in your own words with Describe It, then check the result as a seamless tile.