Bad Bird Begat Brilliant Bard

So, as you may know, I have been working on my Art History project: Illuminated Manuscripts (this link is for elementary-aged kids, but is a good starting place to show y'all what I'm doing)  We had to write a concept paper, with citations, and a bibliography with annotations as well as construct an illuminated page of our own with one of the pieces of literature provided to us. Here are the five we had to choose from:

"In the land of the lotus eaters" by Homer from The Odyssey

Beowulf

"Invocation to Ceres" by Shakespeare from The Tempest

The Gilgamesh Epic: Tablet 1 (translated)

but I chose:

"Canto V" by Dante from Inferno (this is a link to a translation which is also in it's native Italian)

Here is my concept paper I wrote and I am still working on my actual drawing. I found some great paper to use and am going to sketch out a "historiated initial" "S" to go with the first line which is "So I descended from the first enclosure"

After that I'm going to draw a border around the text to depict different aspects of Dante's Hell. Here is a picture of the page I'm using for inspiration.

Following is my paper.  We had to come up with a title and not just something like "Illuminated Dantes Inferno", so I came up with this one. Tell me what you think, ok? ok!

Bad Bird Begat Brilliant Bard

            When the class was first handed the texts to use on this final project, I was excited to see familiar titles; familiar as in I had seen them on a shelf before. So, having not ever read any of these works of literature, I admit that I did refer to Cliff Notes for each one just to get a general overview of the synopsis and a feel for each story.

            I was immediately drawn to two: The Odyssey by Homer and Inferno by Dante. Homer seems to be a master at weaving an incredible yarn of commitment and bravery and I would have been content to discover more about it (and I may still do so). However, the reason I chose Inferno is, even though I’m not a Christian and don’t claim any religious or non-religious group (because I don’t feel that the act of religion is important), I’m always fascinated by what people believe to be a sin and how they themselves will be dealt with in the afterlife for committing such acts.

            Not only did I read and envision Canto V – as per the scope of the project – but when I set out to read the entire poem, I started to wonder what the heck did this guy eat to give him such vivid and detailed dreams like these? To answer this, I skimmed through sections of the book Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History. I enjoyed reading this for my research because I like to cook and to experience food, not just eat it. I learned that veal and fowl, to include pheasant and gray partridge, were popular dishes back in the Middle Ages served to pretty much all classes and were often accompanied by garden vegetables and herbs such as mint and marjoram.

            Realizing that not only does what one eats affect a dream, I researched the events of the authors’ life. According to a timeline, there was a lot of war, economy expansion and church building going on at the time Dante started to write Inferno (Heilbrunn). Plus, a noted chronology of Dante’s life explains that he served in battle, lost a loved one, held public office and was banished from Florence then interrupts writing a series of books in order to write Inferno (Renaissance).  I’m telling you, whether he ate bad fowl or not, his life experience up to this point was inspiration enough to dream about the seven deadly sins. As a matter of fact, Sandra A. Thompson, author of Cloud Nine: A Dreamer’s Dictionary, states, “Dreams can nudge us toward a question that needs to be faced or answered in our conscious life, or a growth direction that needs to be respected.” Considering Dante’s life, I believe her.

            In wondering why did Dante chose Virgil, an Ancient Roman poet, to be the main characters' guide through Hell, I read the lecture by Robert Hollander. The short answer is, nobody knows, but Hollander goes on to write, “We must conclude that Dante willfully chose a pagan as his guide, leaving us to fathom his reasons for doing so.” I then read a short description on Wikipedia about the epic Aeneid written by Virgil to get a feel for that guy. I believe Dante chose the Roman to be his guide because he idealized him as a fellow writer for his seemingly open pagan opinions. And he was already dead, so why not?

            In Canto V, where we are described the levels of sin, and Minos, the king of this realm who judges those who have sinned, I started to wonder what Minos and the sinners of the second realm looked like and then I realized that any painting or illustration I found would only be another artists interpretation anyway, so I decided to draw my own, based on the style of the day.

            After a general search on the school’s library website for early Renaissance illuminated manuscripts, I found out that the New York City Public Library has mounds of wonderful pictures and information for what I was searching. I weeded through pages of beautiful illustrations until one caught my attention: a page from a psalter showing a simple, full painted border with an astounding historiated initial “O” showing Dives and Lazarus (Psalterium). Until I read the description of this particular page, I thought this depicted a psalm about a home like the sparrow making a nest. I did not identify the story I know of the rich man denying the poor man food and drink. At any rate, I still liked this illustration and decided to use it as inspiration for my own. Added inspiration for the idea of Hell came from a favorite poem “Hell in Texas” which I enjoyed re-reading in order to visualize some of the scenery.

            In searching for a font to use for my project, I researched the early printing process. When I read that Windelin of Speyer set his edition of Inferno in a miniature gothic type – which was usually reserved for religious texts – I knew he was my kind of rebel (Renaissance). I began to look for a modern take on a similar typeface and found one called “Bradley Gratis” by a designer named Justin Callaghan. The designer describes it as a fantasy font and maybe that’s why I was attracted to it, but I can see the Gothic elements present such as the angle of the stem strokes at the apex and terminals of letters, the thin crossbars and the shapes of the counters and bowls.

            Since I love books, I was stoked about being able to create a page of my own design. I believe my understanding of the poem selection and illuminated manuscripts in general along with my enthusiasm for the project shows through in my work.