Master of Defense: Nicolina de Parre

When asked to do the Order of Defense scroll for Nicolina de Parre, the only specific request was that it be "Italian" and include badgers. I dug through my archives of images and found the below piece, which my research indicated was the title page for a printing of Augustinus' De Civitate De, which was originally printed at a the monastery of Subiaco  in 1467. 

My research unfortunately cannot date this specific page to that date (as books of this period had title pages left blank to be painted as desired). In fact, the aesthetic of the cupids and curling ribbon give it a slightly post-period feel to me, but there are, however, similar roundel-style pages in period, such as the St. Bernard Sermons Manuscript circa 1491 with miniatures done by Giovanni Boccardi around 1491-1492.

I determined that I wanted to create a Master of Defense livery collar out of the inner ring of the wreath, and thus a scroll was born. I had to keep the text very short, as this it has a very small area for the text to live. I took some creative liberties and added pearls and jewels, because...Italian. I know, not exactly right for this style, but I couldn't resist.

Images are taken at various angles and with/without flash so that you can see details in different lighting.

Overall piece is about 8.5x11" on vellum with Winsor & Newton gouache, and Finetec pigments.

Pelican Scroll - Sionainn

Terrible blogger is terrible. Life changes, priority changes. You know how it goes.

But this piece is just too fun not to share. HE Sionainn contacted me directly when he was put on vigil for the Order of the Pelican. He knew exactly what he wanted and asked for help. I've never had anyone provide such specific desires, and frankly it was awesome. I swear, I spend half my time deciding what to do, and the other half doing it. So this sped things along, dramatically.

This is the inspiration piece he asked for me to use. It's consistent with many period patents. He provided a beautiful art file for his achievement of arms as well. He also specifically asked for the seal, which proved to be the biggest challenge for me to overcome.

I'd heard Artemisia had a Kingdom seal, but I'd never seen it, nor had I seen scrolls with wax seals ever given out. After some sleuthing, it was found, and I borrowed the seal and made a whole pile of wax stamped templates, which can be applied either by warming the wax gently (possibly ruining the impression) or by gluing it down. I gave most of them back to the kingdom to use as they see fit, and kept a few in my stash for future scrolls.

Since there's not much research to share for this, I'll post a bunch of progress pics and close-ups so you can see the detail work I put into this baby. This piece is done with Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi ink, and J. Herbin 1670 Hematite Rouge ink on Pergamenata. I used Winsor & Newton gouache and Finetec pigment for the metallic spots. Click the pics to enlarge.

Golden Pillars for Yuri and Sumayya

It recently occurred to me that I've been terrible at documenting my recent work. Don't be like me.

In March of last year, this piece was completed and given to Count Yuri and Countess Sumayya, as a double-award of Golden Pillars.

Based on the Evangelia quattuor [Gospels known as of Drogon] Folio 8r, at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

I changed the two navy pillars into two gold pillars (see what I did there?) This is done with Pilot ink, Finetec micah pigments, and Winsor & Newton gouache. It is much more shiny and pretty in person, alas.