TRUE PRINCIPLES of POINTED ARCHITECTURE

ST. NICHOLAS



His life, according to James of Voragine.

His life, told in stained glass at Chartres Cathedral.

Sequence by Adam of St. Victor:

Con gaudentes exultemus vocali concordia
Ad beati Nicolai festiva solemnia;

Qui in cunis adhuc jacens servando jejunia
A papillis coepit summa promereri gaudia.

Adolescens amplexatur literarum studia,
Alienus et immubis ab omni lascivia.

Felix confessor,
Cujus fuit dignitatis vox de coelo nuntia!
Per quam provectus,
Praesulatûs sublimatur ad summa fastigia.

Erat in ejus animo pietas eximia,
Et oppressis impendebat multa beneficia.

Auro per eum virginum tollitur infamia,
Atque patris earundem levatur inopia.

Quidam nautae navigantes,
Et contra fluctuum saevitiam luctantes,
Navi pene dissoluta,
Jam de vita desperantes,
In tanto positi periculo, clamantes
Voces dicunt omnes una:

"O beate Nicolae,
Nos ad maris portum trahe
De mortis angustia.
Trahe nos ad portum maris,
Tu qui tot auxiliaris
Pietatis gratia."

Dum clamarent, nec incassum,
"Ecce!" quidam dicit, "assum
Ad vestra praesidia."
Statim aura datur grata
Et tempestas fit sedata:
Quieverunt maria.

Nos, qui sumus in hoc mundo,
Vitiorum in profundo
Jam passi naufragia,
Gloriose Nicolae,
Ad salus portum trahe,
Ubi pax et gloria.

Ex ipsius tumba manat
Unctionis copia,
Quae infirmos omnes sanat
Per ejus suffragia.

Ipsam nobis unctionem
Impetres ad Dominum,
Prece pia,
Quae sanavit laesionem
Multorum peccaminum
In Maria.

Hujus festum celebrantes gaudeant per saecula,
Et coronet eos Christus post vitae curricula!
Amen dicant omnia!
Englished by Digby S. Wrangham:

Let us all exult together, as with one united voice
We upon his solemn feast-day in St. Nicholas rejoice;

Who, whilst in his cradle lying, by observing duly fast,
Heavenly joys began to merit even at his mother's breast.

In his youth he chooses letters, that his study they may be,
To all evil lust a stranger, from all sinful passions free.

This blest confessor,
Whom, as worthy of the office, 'twas a voice from heaven praised,
Thereby exalted,
Amongst bishops to the very highest rank is forthwith raised.

There was too in his character benevolence exceeding,
And many a bounty he bestowed, the tale of sorrow heeding.

With gold he saved some maidens, who had else vile lives been leading,
Relieving all their father's want, when help most sorely needing.

Certain sailors once, when sailing,
And fighting 'gainst fierce waves with struggles unavailing,
Shipwrecked nigh through stress of weather;
Hope of life already failing,
Amid such dangers set, aloud their fate bewailing,
Lift their voices altogether:

"Blessed Nicholas! O steer us
From the straits of death so near us
To the haven of safe sea!
To that harbour in the distance
Draw us, who dost grant assistance
Through the grace of charity!"

"Lo!" - while thus they cried, nor vainly, -
"I am here!" a voice said plainly,
"To watch o'er you and to aid!"
Instantly blow favouring breezes,
Instantly the tempest ceases,
And to rest the sea is laid.

We, now in this world abiding,
Have been wrecked, as we were riding
O'er the deep abyss of vice:
Draw us, Nicholas most glorious!
To the home of peace victorious,
To the port of Paradise!

From his tomb, to heal diseases,
Oil abundant floweth forth,
Which the sick from pain releases
Through his prayers' availing worth.

May we of the self-same ointment
Through thy pious prayer to God
Gain possession,
Which did by the Lord's appointment
Heal the wounds of Mary's load
Of transgression!

Let them joy throughout all ages, who observe this holy day,
And, when this life's course is ended, crowned in heaven by Christ be they!
Amen! let all creatures say!

ST. GALGANO



St. Galgano was a 12th century knight who renounced his dissolute ways and became a hermit after seeing the archangel Michael. To signify his conversion, he plunged his sword into a rock, which received it like butter would. The cruciform hilt became the cross that he venerated in his hermitage.

Later, Cistercian monks built a monastery on the site. It has since been reduced to ruins, but the sword in the stone remains.

ST. BARBARA



Her life, according to James of Voragine.

AQUAMANILES

Kes Smith:

An aquamanile is a vessel from which water is poured. In the ninth century, these elaborately worked jugs appear in church records. They were used to pour water over the hands of the priest to be caught in a basin below [i.e. at the Lavabo at Mass]. Most were of a heavy cast construction and were designed to stay in place while a spigot or tap was used to pour. They grew in popularity and the designs became more and more elegant, and often delightfully fanciful.

Most commonly cast in bronze, aquamaniles were also occasionally made from silver, or gilt copper. These vessels often depicted animals, fabled characters or Biblical scenes.

The aquamaniles pictured below are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Musuem of Fine Arts in Boston; the Cleveland Art Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.



















More here.

ELEVATION TORCHES



Eamon Duffy:

Since the end of the twelfth century it had been customary for the consecrating priest to elevate the Host high above his head immediately after the sacring for adoration by the people... In churches with elaborately carved or colored altarpieces the custom emerged of drawing a plain dark curtain across the reredos at the sacring, to throw the Host into starker prominence... In 1502 a Hull alderman left money for the construction of a mechanical device above the high altar which caused images of angels to descend on the altar at the sacring, and ascend again at the conclusion of the Pater Noster; he had seen such a device at King's Lynn.

The provision of good wax lights, and especially of torches, flaring lights made with thick plaited wicks and a mixture of resin and wax, which burned from the elevation to the Agnus Dei or the priest's communion, became one of the most common of all activities of the guilds. It was also very common for individual testators to specify that the torches burned around their corpses at their funerals should be given to the parish church, to burn around the altar at the sacring time. The provision of such lights was often indulgenced, and they may in addition have had the utilitarian function of lighting up the chancel to make the Host more visible, but they were also conceived of as forming a sort of proxy for the adoring presence of the donor close by the Sacrament at the moment of elevation. This was probably particularly true of funeral torches used as elevation lights... The notion of the torch as a proxy for the worshipping donor is certainly uppermost in the explanation offered by a group of shepherds and herdsmen of their motives in founding a guild of the Blessed Virgin at Holbeach. The guild, they explained, maintained torches at the elevation, because its members were often unable by reason of their work to be at Mass themselves. Such torches were normally held by the clerk or the altar boys in the sanctuary, and they often appear thus in carvings and pictures of the elevation. But where guilds provided large numbers of torches for Sundays and festivals - sometimes up to a dozen or more - the guild members themselves would have gathered round the altar at the moment of elevation.

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

TAPESTRY of the TROJAN WAR

ST. LOY



His life, according to Dado of Rouen.

ST. ANDREW



His life, according to James of Voragine.

Sequence by Adam of St. Victor:

Exultemus et laetemur
Et Andreae delectemur
Laudibus apostoli;
Hujus fidem, dogma, mores,
Et pro Christo tot labores,
Digne decet recoli.

Hic ad fidem Petrum duxit,
Cui primum lux illuxit,
Joannis indicio.
Secus mare Galilaeae,
Petri simul et Andreae
Sequitur electio.

Ambo prius piscatores
Verbi fiunt assertores
Et formae justitiae.
Rete laxant in capturam
Vigilemque gerunt curam
Nascentis Ecclesiae.

A fratre dividitur
Et in partes mittitur
Andreas Achäiae.
In Andreae retia
Currit, Dei gratia,
Magna pars provinciae.

Fide, vita, verbo, signis,
Doctor pius et insignis,
Cor informat populi.
Ut Aegeas comperit
Quid Andreas egerit,
Irae surgunt stimuli.

Mens secura, mens virilis,
Cüi praesens vita vilis,
Viget patientia.
Blandimentis aut tormentis,
Non enervat robur mentis
Judicis insania.

Crucem videns praeparari,
Suo gestit conformari
Magistro discipulus.
Mors pro morte solvitur
Et crucis appetitur
Triumphalis titulus.

In cruce vixit biduum,
Victuris in perpetuum:
Nec vult, volente populo,
Deponi de patibulo.

Hora fere dimidia
Luce perfusus nimia,
Cum luce, cum laetitia,
Pergit ad lucis atria.

O Andrea gloriose,
Cujus preces pretiosae,
Cujus mortis luminosae
Dulcis est memoria;
Ab hac valle lacrymarum
Nos ad illud lumen clarum,
Pie pastor animarum,
Tua transfer gratia. Amen.

Englished by Digby S. Wrangham:

Let us, shouts of gladness raising,
Now delighted to be praising
The Apostle Andrew be:
Whose faith, life, and doctrine precious,
With his mighty works for Jesus,
Should be honoured worthily.

He, who first the true light's glowing
Saw, at John the Baptist's showing,
Peter led the faith to see!
Then are Peter and his brother
Called along with one another
At the Sea of Galilee.

Fishermen till then, both preachers
Of the word become and teachers
Of the rules of righteousness:
Now a net to catch men loose they,
And a wary forethought use they
The young Church to guard and bless.

Andrew soon his brother leaves,
When commission he receives,
And is in Achaia placed:
Of which province a great part
By God's grace convinced in heart,
To the nets of Andrew haste.

By his faith, life, signs, and speeches
This great, good, man's doctrine reaches
And reforms the people's heart.
When Aegeas findeth out
All that Andrew thus had wrought,
Forth his bitter wrath-stings start.

His staid heart and manly spirit,
Who in this life saw no merit,
Stronger from endurance grow.
Flattering or tormenting either,
His insensate judge by neither
Can his strength of mind o'erthrow.

When he sees the cross preparing,
Like his Master, suffering sharing,
The disciple longs to be;
For Christ's death he pays his own,
And for its triumphal crown
On the cross seeks eagerly.

Upon the cross he lived two days,
Thenceforth to live in heaven always;
Nor, when the people wished, would he
Be lifted from the fatal tree.

Nigh half an hour upon that height
Bathed in a light exceeding bright,
In light, exulting at the sight,
He passes to the halls of light.

Andrew, crowned with endless glory!
Rich in prayer propitiatory!
Of whose brilliant death the story
'Tis so sweet in thought to trace!
From this vale of woe exceeding
To that light such radiance shedding,
Loving shepherd, spirits feeding!
O transport us by thy grace! Amen.

ILLUSTRATION REPORT ~ NOVEMBER 2009

Christmas cards:

My Christmas Card for 2009 has been printed. This year's design depicts the Annunciation to the Shepherds, and borrows much of its content and composition from late mediaeval Books of Hours. Three shepherds are shown, with their sheep and sheepdogs. One plays a bagpipe. An angel sings the Gloria among the stars and the winter constellations, accompanied by other angels playing instruments: a cornett, a viol, a serpent, a pair of handbells, a horn and a lute. Miniatures depict the Nativity, and three scenes prefiguring the Virgin Birth according the the Speculum Humanae Salvationis:

The dream of Pharao's butler:

The chief butler first told his dream: I saw before me a vine, On which were three branches, which by little and little sent out buds, and after the blossoms brought forth ripe grapes: and the cup of Pharao was in my hand: and I took the grapes, and pressed them into the cup which I held, and I gave the cup to Pharao.

The flowering of Aaron's rod:

And Moses spoke to the children of Israel: and all the princes gave him rods one for every tribe: and there were twelve rods besides the rod of Aaron. And when Moses had laid them up before the Lord in the tabernacle of the testimony: He returned on the following day, and found that the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi, was budded: and that the buds swelling it had bloomed blossoms, which spreading the leaves, were formed into almonds.

And the Triburtine Sibyl showing the Ara Coeli to the Emperor Augustus:

In order to reward Octavian for having established peace in the world, the Senate wished to pay him the honours of a god. But the wise Emperor, knowing that he was mortal, was unwilling to assume the title of immortal before he had asked the Sibyl whether the world would some day see the birth of a greater man than he.

Now on the day of the Nativity the Sibyl was alone with the emperor, when at high noon, she saw a golden ring appear around the sun. In the middle of the circle stood a Virgin, of wondrous beauty, holding a Child upon her bosom. The Sibyl showed this wonder to Caesar; and a voice was heard which said: This woman is the Altar of Heaven! And the Sibyl said to him: This Child will be greater than thou.

The card measures 4" x 5", folded. The inside of the card is blank.

The cost is $1 per card (envelope included), plus postage. Minimum order of 10. The original drawing is also for sale.



I also recently discovered a stash of last year's card; I had thought these had sold out. The design is based on a stained glass window in the Cathedral at Chartres. The card measures 4" x 5.5", folded. The inside of the card is blank.

The cost is $1 per card (envelope included), plus postage. Minimum order of 10. Only 25 are in stock. The original drawing is also for sale.

Prints available for sale:

I consider this Crucifixion my finest work to date. A detailed explanation of its symbolism can be read here. Museum-quality giclee art prints are available. These are printed on heavy rag paper cut to fit a 9" x 12" frame, and are signed and numbered (1-100). The cost per print is $120, plus postage.



This drawing of the Tree of Life and Death is based on an illumination in a 15th century Missal owned by Archbishop Bernhard von Rohr of Salzburg. The text is from a Marian sequence by Adam of St. Victor. Museum-quality giclee art prints are available. These are printed on heavy rag paper cut to fit a 8" x 10" frame, and are signed and numbered (1-50). The cost per print is $96, plus postage.

       

Three universal bookplates (i.e. bookplates with a blank space in which anyone's name can be written): the first has a picture of olives; the second teems with biological and microbiological shapes; the third is a maze (with one and only one correct path from start to finish). These are exceptional quality digital prints on white acid-free paper, 3" x 4". A package of 60 bookplates (all of one design, or any combination of the three) costs $30, plus postage.

Recently completed works:

A small drawing of the Baptism of Christ, with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Michael the Archangel, Hannah and Samuel. Commissioned to commemorate the baptism of a child in Portugal.

Visit my main web site to see more of my artwork and e-mail me if you are interested in buying or commissioning anything.

Also, I am interested in selling my art prints through religious goods shops and Catholic bookstores.  If you are the proprietor of one of these, or if you know the proprietor of one of these who may be interested, please contact me.  My e-mail is danmitsui [at] hotmail [dot] com.