The LION & the CARDINAL

ILLUSTRATION REPORT ~ JULY 2010

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 07:11:37 -0600

For a more detailed account of my artstic activity, please subscribe to my electronic newsletter by e-mailing danmitsui [at] hotmail [dot] com.

Please also e-mail me if you are interested in purchasing original drawings or prints, commissioning works of art, collaborating, licensing an image, exhibiting my work in a gallery or selling my work in a store. I welcome questions, comments, advice and criticism.

I am very interested in bringing my work and my knowledge about sacred art to a broader audience than this web log, especially by speaking for parishes, schools, youth groups, conferences and other organizations. If you know of any opportunities for this, or if you would like to invite me, please e-mail me.

My main web site has been redesigned, and now includes prices on all works for sale, most of which are in the sections on religious art, biological art and giclée prints.

On a personal note, my son has recovered well from the surgery that I mentioned last month. I am immeasurably grateful to those who offered prayers on his behalf.

New Print Available

I have issued a new print of my recent drawing of the Annunciation. The edition is limited to 100 prints; each is signed and numbered.

Tom Petroff of Artists Print Service prepared these gicleée art prints on heavy rag paper for me. I have worked with this printer for years, and he has always done a remarkable job. This particular print proved a special challenge, as it was the first one I have ordered of a drawing in full color with gold leaf. Gold leaf, when scanned, looks rather gray and green. To better capture the true appearance of the drawing, Mr. Petroff photographed the original with indirect lighting that reflected off the gold leaf in warmer, more accurate hues. The gilded areas on the prints look much brighter and warmer than they do on the scans shown above.

I finished signing and numbering the prints yesterday morning. They really turned out beautifully; the details are sharp, the colors bright. I hope that they will prove popular.

The print is the same size as the original drawing: 6" wide and 8" tall, centered on 8" x 10" paper. Each print costs $96 plus shipping.

The original drawing is also for sale, for $2400. For more information about this work of art, see this web page.

Recently Completed Drawings

The largest drawing that I have been working on over the past month, of the Last Judgment, is still a week or two from completion. The following drawings were all finished in July:

A colored ink drawing on goatskin parchment, of Our Lady of Czestochowa. The haloes, garment trims and textile patterns are authentic gold leaf. 4" x 6". The original is for sale for $400.

This drawing of St. Peter was created to commemorate the Pontifical Solemn High Mass recently celebrated at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. Limited-edition gicléee prints of the original drawing were created as gifts for members of the schola that sang at the Mass.

This bookplate was a gift to a couple on the occasion of their 40th wedding anniversary. The central image is of St. Edward the Confessor being crowned with palms; Moses leading the Israelites through the desert and the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost are drawn to either side of it. The small drawings in the corners stand for the names of the couple's four children.

A custom heraldic bookplate, featuring the arms of the Viana and Pereira families of Portugal. The tinctures are indicated using the Petra Sancta hatching system.

This drawing on goatskin parchment began as a calligraphy practice sheet. I added color and gold leaf to the handwritten prayer. 4" x 3". The original is for sale for $100.

Work in New Media

I continue my work on several projects in media besides ink drawing: I have acquired paint, rabbit skin glue-based gesso, and boards (which I have already sawn and sanded by hand) for several painted icons. I also plan to gesso some parchment and paper, to use for silverpoint drawing.

Mostly, I have been working on etched metal. I hope to create intricately patterned gowns to place over icons of the Holy Face of San Silvestro and of Our Lady of Czestochowa, and crucifixes and medals for a mediaeval-style rosaries strung with bloodstone and jasper beads on silk cord.

My first tests using copper plates etched with ferric chloride were successful. Soon, I will begin work on some sterling silver plates, to be etched with ferric nitrate.

Limited-Edition Art Prints for Sale

Limited-edition giclée art prints on heavy rag paper are available of the following works. Click on the thumbnails below for more information about each drawing, or here for more information about limited-edition prints in general.

Annunciation
Image size: 6" x 8"
Paper size: 8" x 10"
Limited edition (1-100) signed giclee art print
$96 + shipping

Crucifixion
Image size: 8" x 11"
Paper size: 9" x 12"
Limited edition (1-100) signed giclee art print
$120 + shipping

St. Michael
Image size: 5.5" x 8.5"
Paper size: 8" x 10"
Limited edition (1-30) signed giclee art print
$96 + shipping

St. Columba of Iona
Image size: 8 1/2" x 11 1/9"
Paper size: 9" x 12"
Limited edition (1-6) signed giclee art print
$120 + shipping

Tree of Life and Death
Image size: 5 1/4" x 7"
Paper size: 8" x 10"
Limited edition (1-50) signed giclee art print
$96 + shipping

Christmas Cards for Sale

Tree of Jesse
Card size: 5" x 7"
Blank inside
$1 per card + shipping
Envelopes included
Minimum order of 10

Annunciation to the Shepherds
Card size: 4" x 5"
Blank inside
$1 per card + shipping
Envelopes included
Minimum order of 10

See this page for more information.

Printed Universal Bookplates for Sale

Olives

Critters

Maze

Size of printed bookplates: 3" x 4"

EVAGATIONES SPIRITUS

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 08:28:50 -0600

Christian Museum:

This painting by an Austrian or perhaps a Hungarian painter has an unusual iconography. Originally, the panel was joined with another one that closely correlated to it also in its content. In the other, now lost panel, a praying man was depicted. The red lines that once departed from his figure and continue in this picture represent his erring thoughts. The attention given to clothes, drinking, worldly treasures, and women is shown here as morally reproachable. It is possible that also a third panel was joined to these which showed the correct direction of the praying man’s thoughts and the desirable virtues. Tempera on wood, 1430s.

ANATOMICAL MAN

Sat, 3 Jul 2010 13:13:39 -0600

From the MacKinney Collection of Mediaeval Medical Illustrations.

BOXLEY ROOD of GRACE

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:05:31 -0600

Pilgrim badge from Boxley

Chambers' Book of Days:

One of the most famous of these roods or crucifixes was that at the abbey of Boxley, in Kent, which was entitled the Rood of Grace. The legend is, that an English carpenter, having been taken prisoner in the French wars, and wishing to employ his leisure as well as obtain his ransom, made a very skilful piece of workmanship of wood, wire, paste, and paper, in the form of a cross of exquisite proportion, on which hung the figure of our Saviour, which, by means of springs, could bow down, lift itself up, shake its hands and feet, nod the head, roll its eyes, and smile or frown. The carpenter, getting permission to return and sell his work, put it on a horse, and drove it before him; but stopping near Rochester at an alehouse for refreshment, the animal passed on, and missing the straight road, galloped south to Boxley, and being driven by some divine furie, never stopped until it reached the church-door, when it kicked so loudly with its heels, that the monks ran out to see the wonder. No sooner was the door opened, than the horse rushed in, and stood still by a pillar. The monks were proceeding to unload, when the owner appeared, and claimed his property; but in vain did he try to lead the horse from the sanctuary; it seemed nailed to the spot. He next attempted to remove the rood, but was equally unsuccessful; so that in the end, through sheer weariness and the entreaties of the monks to have the image left with them, he consented to sell it to them for a piece of money...

At the dissolution of the abbeys, Cromwell and his associates laid their ruthless hands on Boxley; and Nicholas Partridge, suspecting some cheat in the Rood of Grace, made an examination, and soon discovered the spring which turned the mechanism. It was taken to Maidstone, and there exposed to the people; from thence to London, where the king and his court laughed at the object they had once deemed holy; and, finally, it was brought before an immense multitude at St. Paul's Cross, by Hilsey, bishop of Rochester, on Sunday, the 24th of February 1538, when it was broken to pieces and buried, the bishop preaching a sermon on the subject.

EARLY CATHOLIC AVIATORS, part XI: CHARLES WATERTON

Sat, 3 Jul 2010 13:10:51 -0600

Richard Hobson:

Mr. Waterton had considerable inventive genius, especially in the actual formation of supposed extinct animals, and, generally, of the most horrid form and appearance, by a skilful union of separate portions of reptiles. By the way, his inventive powers, though more than forty years ago, had nearly carried his experimental ingenuity to a fatal issue. He had, for a considerable period, conceived some crude and illdigested idea, that the act of flying was within his grasp, and that, in a short time, he would become a second Pegasus in execution.

Under this surprisingly delusive impression, Mr. Waterton invented, and manufactured duplicates of a peculiar character of mechanism, as substitutes for natural wings, to be fixed on each arm, and to be united by their then surrounding the thoracic and dorsal portions of the trunk. How the Squire proposed to dispose of his lower extremities he did not explain to me, but I remember he stated that, a man's legs, however symmetrically formed, were inconveniently long and heavy for an atmospheric trip, except they could have something less yielding than air on which to rest, or to sustain the lever they represent, and, consequently, were too unwieldy and unmanageable to be of any service to the aeronaut in navigating the atmosphere; adding, that the only time, during his life, he had found his legs in the way, was, when he attempted to fly.

At all events, Mr. Waterton not only manufactured these fictitious wings which I have named, but he actually attached them, to his arms and trunk, and also formed and fixed the remaining mechanism which he conceived was necessary to be attached to the other parts of the body, so as to complete, and, as he imagined, perfect this really chimerical project; and in order to carry out his scheme into practical execution, he arranged to make his first essay from the eaves of a roof of a building in the farm yard, being an elevation of several yards, from whence his flight, it is true, would be of limited extent longitudinally, and where an abundance of litter would break the severity of a possibly uncontrollable and rapid descent.

Fortunately, however, when the Squire was clipped and heeled for his first attempt to become an aerologist, an intimate friend, Alicui toto pectore deditus, accidentally walked into the farm yard, and, happily, had sufficient influence over the would-be aeronaut to persuade him to take his first aerial flight from a much less elevated position.

Of course, it is needless to minutely detail the practical freaks which actually occurred in attempting to carry out this delusive conception, as the Squire afterwards unhesitatingly admitted to me that, unlike Pegasus, ho could neither fly to the top of Mount Helicon, nor further imitate him by then flying up to heaven. Also, that his affinity for the earth, to his great surprise, woefully outbalanced his attraction to the clouds, and that, on coming in contact with mother earth, he received, as he was wont to say, when jocosely using the Walton dialect, such a foul shak, as to be satisfactorily convinced that soaring in the atmosphere was not his forte, having, in his unwilling, unintentional, and disagreeably hasty descent, like Phaeton (who lost command of his horses) thoroughly lost all command of his wings, and thus narrowly escaped a broken neck, by pitching upon his head in spite of the faith he had entertained in his all-protecting wings.

ST. ANNE

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:45:53 -0600

Her life, according to James of Voragine.

LADY ALTAR at RANWORTH

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 08:27:12 -0600

Photograph by Michael Coleman

Eamon Duffy:

[The Lady altar at Ranworth, in Norfolk] had special significance for the women of the parish. It was the custom after childbirth for women, when they came to be churched, to present themselves and their babies before the principal image or altar of Our Lady, and to offer a candle in thanksgiving for their safe delivery. The iconography of teh Ranworth Lady altar refers to directly to this custom, for all four of its paintings deal with childbirth and babies. It portrays the Holy Kindred, or the extended family of Jesus, in the form of the three daughters of St. Anne (the three Marys) and their children. Mary Salome is portrayed with her sons, the apostles James and John. Next to her is her sister, the Blessed Virgin, with the Christ child. Next to her is Mary Cleophas, with her four sons, James and Joses, Simon and Jude. And completing the sequence of four paintings is an image of St. Margaret of Antioch, whose bursting out of the dragon's belly in her prison had made her the patron of women in childbirth or our lady's prison, as it was often called. The invocation of St. Margaret against the dangers of childbirth was, as we have seen, commonplace and officially endorsed in liturgy and preaching. The Ranworth screen suggests that it could transcend mere mechanical custom, to be integrated into a sensitive and symbolically appropriate sense of the sacred dimension of human family life.

Late mediaeval Norfolk, especially the area around Ranworth, was the focus of a flourishing devotion to St. Anne. Her cult was a popular one in the late Middle Ages in England as elsewhere, and she and her daughters provided a symbolic affirmation of the rootedness of the Incarnate Christ within a real human family. At a time when much in the cult of the saints mitigated against a positive valuation of human sexuality and the realities of marriage and childbearing, the cult of St. Anne provided an image of female fruitfulness which was maternal rather than virginal, and her thrice-married state... was an unequivocal assertion of the compatibility of sanctity and married life. She represented both the notion of the family and the principle of fertility, whose three holy daughters gave birth in their turn to six Apostles and the Saviour of the world...

It is no surprise, therefore, to find St. Anne's daughters represented together on the Ranworth screen. But their placing on the Lady altar alongside the familiar image of Margaret conquering the dragon shows a desire to present a complex and positive icon of childbearing and childhood to the women who brought their offerings of thanks to Mary and Margaret. The latter, whose spectacular torments and miraculous preservation spoke of holiness and otherness, was a symbol of transcendent power, the sacred beyond the limits of the experience of ordinary people. Her power to help sprang from her divinely protected and heroic virginal integrity. The figures in the other paintings are even more sacred beings - Christ and His six cousins, all of them Apostles, and Anne's three holy daughters. But here they are mothers and children of flesh and blood; one of the toddlers blows bubbles from a pipe, and another clutches a toy windmill. The screen spoke to the women of Ranworth simultaneously of the divine indwelling in the concrete reality of the family, of the sanctity of marriage and procreation and God;s blessing on ordinary things, and at the same time of the transcendent power of God to help those in extremity, symbolized by Margaret's virginal intercession.

[The Stripping of the Altars by Eamon Duffy. Yale University Press, 1992]

ST. CHRISTOPHER

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 23:01:00 -0600

His life, according to James of Voragine.

ST. JAMES the GREATER

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 20:51:03 -0600

His life, according to James of Voragine.

Sequence by Adam of St. Victor:

Pangat chorus in hac die

Novum genus melodiae,

Clara dans praeconia:

Jacobum resultat lyra,

In quo floruit tam mira

Meritorum copia.

Patre natus Zebedaeo,

Instat mari Galilaeo

Arte piscatoria.

Judaismi ficus arens

Nutrix ei fit et parens

In legis duritia.

Ex divinae vocis oraculo,

Pro jubentis nutu vel oculo,

Piscatoris abjurat titulo

Praeodorans dona perennia;

Synagogam mutat Ecclesia,

Patrem Deo legemque gratia,

Transfigurans mentis industria

Navem cruce verboque retia.

Vas sincerum, granum pingue,

Bibit lac coelestis linguae,

Vitge sugit ubera,

Induit Apostolatum,

Coelo capit principatum,

Verbo premit aethera.

Hic in sua specie

Regem vidit gloriae

Vultu clarum flammeo,

Quem crucis vicinia

Vi respersit nimia,

Sudore sanguineo.

Hunc in coena mystica

Agni came deica

Christus pavit;

Hujus mentem coelitus

Aspirans Paraclitus

Debriavit.

Duplicem exercens alam,

Erigit coelestem scalam

Sermonis et operis,

Et rebelles Deo magos

Sensu doctrinaque vagos

Fide jungit superis.

Dabat viva vox Hebraei

Sonum ut sublimus Dei,

Docens lapsus orbis rei

Solvi poenitentia;

Jacobus ut torrens ignis

Fulgurat virtutum signis;

Rebus vacat Deo dignis,

Coelis infert studia.

Hinc Herodes fervens ira

Rabieque furens dira

Jussa dat crudelia,

Jubens hunc ense feriri

Et immeritum puniri

Capitis sententia.

Sic, excocto gelu martyrii,

Apprehendit coronam bravii

Jacobi prudentia,

Cujus ope fulget Ecclesia;

Stet in fide, crescat in gratia,

Consequatur caelorum praemia! Amen.

Englished by Digby S. Wrangham:

Let our choir in sweet laudation,

Sounding with clear intonation,

Chant a new-made song to-day:

'Tis with James the lyre resoundeth,

Who with merits rare aboundeth

In so wonderful a way.

He and Zebedee his father

Toiled as fisheniien together

By the Sea of Galilee:

Jewry's withered fig-tree bore him,

And, as his stern nurse, watched o'er him

In the Law's severity.

Hearing a voice divine God's will proclaim.

He, when Christ's nod and look commands the same,

Abjures at once the fisher's trade and name,

Scenting afar eternal gifts outpoured:

He gives the Church the Synagogue's old place,

Changes his sire for God, the law for grace,

Transforming of set purpose in each case

Ship to the cross and nets to God's own Word.

He, pure vessel! grain most feeding!

Drinks milk from God's word proceeding.

Sucks the breasts of life on high,

The Apostolate assumeth,

A great prince in Heaven becometh,

With the word attacks the sky.

The great King of glory he

Doth in all his beauty see.

With his visage bright as flame,

Who, when now the cross drew nigh,

Was in his fierce agony

Sprinkled with a blood-sweat stream.

Him too at that mystic feast

With the Lamb's divine flesh Christ

Fed most truly;

And his soul with heavenly fire

Did the Paraclete inspire

Fully, throughly.

He, his twain wings exercising.

Sets a ladder, heavenward rising,

Of words said and actions done;

And of Magians, God opposing,

Wildest thoughts and doctrines choosing,

Makes the faith with angels' one.

By this Hebrew's voice were given

Wakening sounds like God's in heaven,

Teaching a lost world that even

Its sins penitence could heal:

James like vivid lightning gloweth,

Bright with marks that virtue showeth,

Thought on things divine bestoweth,

And for heaven expends his zeal.

Herod therefore, hot with passion,

Wild with direst indignation,

Forth his cruel mandate sent,

Ordering him to death most dreaded,

With the sword to be beheaded.

Who deserved no punishment.

Thus, martyrdom's fierce frost all thawed and past,

St. James's wisdom wins for him at last

The crown which is the victor's prize.

Through whose assistance now the Church doth shine:

May its faith stand, its grace too ne'er decline.

But gain at last its guerdon in the skies! Amen.

ARMENIAN GOSPEL MANUSCRIPT ~ 12th CENTURY

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:11:17 -0600

The preface:

The concordance:

The initial pages of the four Gospels: