Icon Diploma Student

Learning to see with the eye of the heart

Posts tagged ‘Romanesque Manuscripts’

Wetfold drapery Romanesque style

Monochrome study of St John The Evangelist

Monochrome study of St John the Evangelist, from the Lambeth Bible

At the start of our course, Aidan asked us to practice painting figures in monochrome. My first few studies were pretty awful but when I got accustomed to the egg tempera, I really enjoyed painting the lively fabric drapery known as the ‘wetfold’ style which was used in the manuscripts of the Romanesque period.

This is an unmistakable style; the garments articulate the figures in sweeping curves. The style is seen in several great manuscripts of the period including the Lambeth Bible.

Illuminated manuscript, English, c.1146. From the Lambeth Bible, Ms.3, fol.258 v. London, Lambeth Palace Library.

Illuminated manuscript, English, c.1146. From the Lambeth Bible, Ms.3, fol.258 v. London, Lambeth Palace Library.

The above illustration also gives us a glimpse of the interwoven lettering of the period.

The next stage of my study of lettering for icons comes from possibly the most beautiful manuscript of the Romanesque period, the great Bury Bible. It’s largely the work  of Master Hugo (c.1130-1160), the earliest professional artist documented in England. He was a multi-talented craftsman who produced various items for Bury: a great bell in the crossing tower, a set of decorated metal church doors, and a beautiful cross for the abbey choir. Master Hugo’s places of origin and training remain elusive but there is some speculation that he travelled within Byzantium given his dramatic style of work.

It’s a rich source of imagery for iconographers looking for inspiration from an historic western perspective.

Red ochre painting of Aaron on watercolour paper

Monochrome study in ‘English red ochre light‘ of Aaron from the Bury Bible

Further examples of the wetfold drapery technique can be found in other manuscripts of the period, the example below also shows interesting examples of buildings and trees.

I’ve been busy working on my final icon for the diploma course – a large festal icon of the Nativity. It seems a bit odd to write about this in the middle of Lent so I will write about it a bit later! In the meantime, I will sign off with a taster of my lettering from the Bury Bible below.

Thanks for reading,

Ronnie

PS if anyone has an Instagram account, I have been posting photos of my work in progress under the name of icondiplomastudent, you can see it here.

a

 ‘A’ based on lettering found in the  Bury Bible

 

 

 

Gilders’ Punch Tools

Cropped image of Annunciation from French manuscript

‘The Annunciation’ detail of an illumination I painted in 2004 – based on a French or Flanders manuscript, 12th C (original size approx 150 x 100mm)

Over ten years ago, I attended a series of workshops run by Patricia Lovett on gilding and traditional egg tempera painting skills. Patricia is enthusiastic, highly skilled and a natural teacher and part of our learning was to paint our own illuminations based on good quality examples of manuscripts. It was a wonderful introduction to the world of gilding on vellum and Patricia still runs these workshops from time to time, from her home in Kent.

I am particularly drawn to manuscripts of the Romansque period such as the one above, the original which is kept in the British Library and can be seen in The Illuminated Page by Janet Backhouse. For anyone interested in manuscripts, it is a wonderful  book. I bought my copy in the Blake Head Bookshop, Micklegate, York in 1997. The shop has long gone which is a great loss, but the book is a favourite and still available.

Having leafed through this book many times, I would often wonder how certain things were done, such as how a gilded background was tooled. Having spent long hours last summer learning to gild icons (see my earlier posts) it is really quite a challenge to get the smooth mirror gold shine of water gilding. For the example above, I used the tip of a gilders pointed pencil burnishing tool. Looking back on it now, it is fairly crude, but I was pleased with how the tiny indents sparkled when catching the light.

To see a startlingly impressive example of tooled gilding, from a later period (c.1395–1399) I would highly recommend a visit to the National Gallery in London, to see the Wilton Diptych.

Image of the WIlton Diptych

Image of the WIlton Diptych courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilton_Diptych

detail of Wilton Diptych tooling

Detail of background tooling on the above image of the WIlton Diptych

detail of tooled gilded background

Tooled background of the second panel of the WIlton Diptych

Crown detail Edward Confessor

Detail of crown of King Edward the Confessor from the Wilton Diptych

It has puzzled me as to the tools that might have been used to do this exquisite work and have googled high and low for anything that might be suitable. I discovered a blog by the classical realist painter Jerry Berg who described some of the tools which he had bought from a shop in Florence.

gilders punch tools

Gilders’ punch tools courtesy of Jerry Berg’s blog

Jerry gave an example of how the tool worked and I think that this might be worth investigating. So, this morning I was delighted to receive Cosimo Tasinari’s four page catalogue in the post which I have scanned for you here: Cosimo Tassinari Firenze Italy

gilders punch tools

Gilders punch tools courtesy of Jerry Berg’s blog

Contact details: Piero P. Fantechi, Ditta Cosimo Tassinari, Piazza S. Maria Novella 2r, Florence, 50123 Italy.      Ph: 0039 055-287-869    Fax: 0039 055-287-869      tassinari@infinito.it

Gilding, Tooling, and Stamping Supplies; Type – Hand Engraved Brass; Bookbinding Tools; Dies; Stamps and Rollers, Typeholders; Steel punchers for icons-gesso. Will cut tools to your design; hand-engraved seals made. English spoken.

I usually don’t like shopping but I would love a visit to this shop!

Hope this is useful and thanks for reading.

Ronnie