Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta
MS. 20, Folio 13
Me, getting started the day before it needs to be shipped out.
What is this and Why am I doing this?
This was a last minute Award of Arms that was assigned to me.
So why did I wait so late to get started? I had intended to start on it earlier, but I was off on Saturday at QRC, and I busted up my finger.
This design was chosen by my fencing great grandfather, Master Christian de Laney. I'm currently planning on recreating this entire manual, but it's 128 pages long. So I had him pick a design out of the manual for me to work from.
I've included a commentary from Mistress Raziya bint Rusa, an expert on plant life, herbology and gardening, and their depictions in pre-17th century art.
My swollen finger after trepanation
The image was a lot worst and 3 times more swollen than this picture. I was doing my best to ensure that I wouldn't cause permanent damage to my nail plate, or cause my finger nail to fall off.
Youch, it hurts to type
It takes me a long time to write anything now. I also gained a deeper appreciation for how much work I actually do with my left hand.
The Extant: MS 20, Folio 13 "Medlar, Poppy Anemone, and Pear"
Title: Medlar, Poppy Anemone, and Pear
Artist/Maker: Joris Hoefnagel (Flemish / Hungarian, 1542 - 1600)
and Georg Bocskay (Hungarian, died 1575)
Date: 1561–1562; illumination added 1591–1596
Medium: Watercolors, gold and silver paint, and ink
Dimensions: Leaf: 16.6 × 12.4 cm (6 9/16 × 4 7/8 in.)
Place: Vienna, Austria (Place Created)
Culture: Flemish and Hungarian
Object Number: Ms. 20 (86.MV.527), fol. 13
Alternate Titles: Mira calligraphiae monumenta (Group Title)
Department: Manuscripts
Classification: Manuscript
Object Type: Folio
Alternate Numbers: 86.MV.527.13 (Object Number); Ms. 20, fol. 13 (Manuscript Number)
Folio information presented, as listed at the Getty Museum, November 15, 2023.
As seen at the Getty Museum, click here for a link to the museum page.
Materials Used:
Paper
I bought special, handmade paper that is cotton based
Light table
Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolor
Fountain pen and archival ink
Pigment pen
Pencil and eraser
It's late period
Total time spent on scroll alone: 3 hours, 20 minutes
English Words by MeiLan
Wishes of Ragnarr, king of Atlantia, and Mary Isabel, Queen, are minded to give an Award of Arms to Our subject Anuiska Sekerina for her service to our kingdom. We do hereby award her the following arms: * . Henceforth shall have the sole and exclusive right to bear these Arms. In witness whereof We hereto set Our hand this 18 day of November Anno Societatis 58 at Our Curly Cross Tavern in Our Windmaster’s Hill.
Latin Translation
Vota Regneri, Atlantiae regis, et Mariae Isabellae reginae, Anuiska Sekerina subdito nostro Anuiskae regni nostri obsequium dare voluerunt lacus armorum. Adiudicamus ei haec arma: * . Unicum et exclusivum ius habeat amodo haec arma gerendi. In cuius rei testimonium huic rei Nostrae imposuimus XVIII die mensis Novembris Anno Societatis LVIII apud Nostram Curly Cross Taern in Monte Windmaster.
Mission: START!
Progress: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Progress: 1 hour, 45 minutes
I skipped the pencil drawing stage and went straight to using Pigment markers to both sketch and line at the same time.
PRO TIP: Perform an erasability test on your paper before you apply pencil to it. See what happens when you erase on it. My paper started to feather and fell apart.
Progress: 2 hours
I spent part of the day talking to my fellow sword cousin and scribe about applying paint in the traditional way of Flemish artists.
This scroll was half painted in the Flemish style, in realistic style and the flower was done in a series of paint glazes.
I did this for a few reasons:
The styles seemed to meld together onto this piece, and they worked together well to add dimension
Glaze-style watercolors are a favorite of my laurel, I try to sneak in one element in the scroll that is in that style for him. This style is period, and can also be seen on other pages in the same Manuscript, but I chose to paint the flower in this style
Realistic style painting technique in watercolors is close to the same technique used by the Flemish artists, and is appropriate for this piece
Progress: 2 hours, 30 minutes
What do I mean, "Flemish Style Painting:" For a quick and dirty guide, read here.
Right now, I haven't written up a guide on how to execute this style, but I will when I have the opportunity.
But the Flemish style will use underpainting to tone the painting. The sample tutorial used brown, I used blue in mine. I did a detailed sketch with a little cross hatching on the elements.
Progress: 3 hours
You can almost see Clydywn Gwehydd of Northshield's avatar in the back as we discuss the technical application of paint on various materials.
FINISHED: 3 hours, 20 minutes
Oops, forgot the signature spot
I showed this scroll to my back up laurel for advice, she said "where do you want the royals to sign?" So I went ahead and added a signature line post-it to the scroll.
Commentary from Mistress Raziya bint Rusa - Laurel in Plantlife
Posted with permission so I can better improve my technique.
Overall, I'm happy with my progress on this page. I think I have her approval.
On the flowers - I'm glad my work on the practice flowers has paid off. For the flowers, I leaned closer to the technique of the Old Masters, and used a blue underpainting with the blue fine lines beneath it to delineate the vessels of each leaf. In hindsight, I could have gone over it with another layer of red, orange or ochre to make it closer to the original.
On the random leaf - I do see where I could have made the leaf closer to the actual leaf. I missed that key component of the little teeth along the edges.
On the medlar and pear - On the commentary of the pear and the medlar, I will need to study the painting techniques of the Flemish Old Masters some more. For the pear and medlar, I used a brown underpainting instead of blue. I do have nice technique, but always room for improvement. In the extant, they applied their paint in thin lines, almost like an elongated dot-matrix. In hindsight, if I had used blue I would have had a deeper contrast. This is a technique that I will need to practice some more.
Departures from Period Technique
I styled my calligraphy as close as I could to the extant
I will need to revisit this at a later time and create a new alphabet based on the extant
My flourishes are more reserved than the extant, this was a deliberate decision because I felt that the structure of the words didn't match the flourishes
I used pigment pens versus ink and dip pen
Use of a pigment pen was a necessity for this project. The paper I was using for this project feathered the ink more than I would have liked. I had more control with where and how the ink was applied to the page in the sketching phase.
My scroll is painted in water color paints made by Winsor & Newton mixed with a proteinaceous binder in some parts. I didn't use any binders with this project and applied straight paint diluted with water.
Extant paints would be made out of a combination of mineral pigments and binders. More detailed explanation on period paint compositions can be read here. The TL;DR version is as follows:
Blue paints are likely ground azurite and copper oxide
Clear/white paint is made out of glair and calcium carbonate. Other variations can use zinc or lead white
Green paint is a combination of copper and copper-chlorine resinate
Red/brown paint can be made out of a combination of hematite, iron sulfide, lead sulfide and palmierite (lead-potassium-sulfur) compound
Black ink is iron gall ink, and was typically used for both calligraphy and sketching
Things I Learned
The paper I bought does not like to erase, it falls apart easily and dissolves.
I drew the entire scroll with pigment markers so I wouldn't have to erase anything. I was living dangerously!
I got to work a bit on my cross hatching.
I need to take better photographs, those dark marks are atrocious! They're only visible at certain angles too.
I will need to write a tutorial on painting in the Flemish style with watercolors at some point.
Use the blue underpainting technique
My letters are irregularly leaning in this sample
I partially blame my busted finger for this. Even though I'm right handed, I do use my left hand to position, stabilize and guide the page while I'm working on calligraphy. Without my left hand, my letters go wonky as I try to hold the page down with my right while making letters.