APSU art student conducts research at London museums

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – The Bayeux Tapestry, a medieval embroidery that depicts the Norman invasion of England in 1066, contains such elaborate details that only a male artist could have produced it.

As one critic pointed out, it’s impossible for a woman to have stitched such accurate-looking military weapons and uniforms.

“Excuse me!” Macon St. Hilaire, an Austin Peay State University art student, said recently. “As a military wife, and specifically a woman, I am certainly no expert but have the mental capacity to remember what something looks like, and I imagine women in 1066 had the same level of cognitive ability.”

The famous tapestry was created at a time when artists didn’t identify themselves with their artwork, and after reading one critic’s sexist views, St. Hilaire decided to look into the possibility that women helped stitch some of the great embroideries of the middle ages. In the spring of 2015, she received an APSU Presidential Research Scholar grant, and last semester, she used the grant’s $3,000 award to travel to Europe to examine the works first hand.

Several artists likely worked on the 230-foot wide tapestry, and St. Hilaire believes there is credible evidence that some of them could have been women.

Last summer, St. Hilaire developed contacts with curators at some of Europe’s leading museums, and in November, during the Thanksgiving holiday, she flew to London for a week of research. One afternoon, she was ushered into a back room inside the famed Victoria and Albert Museum to examine 700-year-old embroideries within the museum’s private collection. On the back of the fabric, she observed how the old masters made each stitch.

While in England, St. Hilaire’s research also took her to The British Museum, The Clothworker’s Center, Durham Cathedral, The Reading Museum and The Ashmolean Museum. At The Royal School of Needlework, in North Yorkshire, she even participated in a goldwork embroidery class. Still, the week in England helped St. Hilairefurther her research beyond what she could have done in Clarksville.

“I wouldn’t have had this opportunity anywhere other than Austin Peay,” she said. “I would have to have been in a graduate program. It was totally amazing.”

St. Hilaire will present her research at the University’s Research and Creativity Forum later this spring. For information on other student research at APSU, contact the University’s Office of Undergraduate Research at our@apsu.edu or 931-221-7625.