ILLUSTRATION REPORT ~ JANUARY 2010

Recently Completed Works:

The Tree of Jesse, with twelve prophets of the Incarnation, according to the mediaeval Christmas Eve liturgy of the Processus Prophetarum: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Moses, David, Habakkuk, Simeon, Elizabeth, John the Baptist, Virgil, Nebuchadnezzar and the Eritrean Sibyl.

This is my Christmas Card for 2010. Printed cards are 5"x7", and blank inside. The cost is $1 per card + envelope (minimum order of 10), plus shipping. My Christmas Card for 2009 is still in stock. The original drawings for both of these cards are for sale.





A sprig of sweetpeas. Private commission.



A bookplate of St. Benedict, inspired in part by a 15th century miniature.



A Hieronymus Bosch-inspired illustration for a customer from Finland.

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 shipping.



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 shipping.

       

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.

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

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

DEPOSITION of the ALLELUIA



Prose by Godescalcus:

Cantemus cuncti melodum nunc Alleluia. 

In laudibus aeterni regis haec plebs resultet Alleluia. 

Hoc denique coelestes chori centent in altum Alleluia.

Hoc beatorum per prata paradisiaca psallat concentus Alleluia.

Quin est astrorum micantia luminaria jubilent altum Alleluia.

Nubium cursus, ventorum volatus, fulgurum coruscatio et tonitruum sonitus dulce consonent simul Alleluia.

Fructus et undae, imber et procellae, tempestas et serenitas, cauma, gelu, nix, prunae, saltus, nemora pangrant Alleluia.

Hinc variae volucres creatorem laudibus concinite cum Alleluia.

Ast illic respondeant voces altae diversarum bestiarum Alleluia.

Istinc montium celsi vertices sonent Alleluia.

Hinc vallium profunditates saltent Alleluia.

Tu quoque maris jubilans abysse dic Alleluia.

Nec non terrarum molis immensitates: Alleluia.

Nunc omne genus humanum laudans exultet: Alleluia.

Et creatori grates frequentans consonet: Alleluia.

Hoc denique nomen audire jugiter delectatur Alleluia.

Hoc etiam carmen coeleste comprobat ipse Christus: Alleluia.

Nunc vos socii cantate laetantes: Alleluia.

Et vos pueruli respondete semper Alleluia.

Nunc omnes canite simul Alleluia domino, Alleluia Christo pneumatique Alleluia.

Laus Trinitati aeternae in babtismo domini quae clarificatur: Hinc canamus: Alleluia.
Englished by John Mason Neale:

The strain upraise of joy and praise, Alleluia.

To the glory of their King
Shall the ransom'd people sing Alleluia.

And the choirs that dwell on high
Shall re-echo through the sky, Alleluia.

They through the firlds of Paradise that roam,
The blessed ones, repeat through that bright home, Alleluia.

The planets glitt'ring in their heavenly way,
The shining constellations, join, and say Alleluia.

Ye clouds that onward sweep!
Ye winds on pinions light!
Ye thunders, echoing loud and deep!
Ye lightnings, wildly bright!
In sweet consent unite your Alleluia.

Ye floods and ocean billows!
Ye storms and winter snow!
Ye days of cloudless beauty!
Hoar frost and summer glow!
Ye groves that wave in spring,
And glorious forests, sing Alleluia.

First let the birds, with painted plumage gay,
Exalt their great Creator's praise, and say Alleluia.

Then let the beasts of earth with varying strain,
Join in Creation's Hymn, and cry again Alleluia.

Here let the mountains thunder forth, sonorous, Alleluia.
There, let the valleys sing in gentler chorus, Alleluia.

Thou jubilant abyss of ocean, cry Alleluia.
Ye tracts of earth and continents, reply Alleluia.

To God, Who all Creation made,
The frequent hymn be duly paid: Alleluia.

This is the strain, the eternal strain, the Lord of all things loves: Alleluia.
This is the song, the heav'nly song, that Christ Himself approves: Alleluia.

Wherefore we sing, both heart and voice awaking, Alleluia.
And children's voices echo, answer making, Alleluia.

Now from all men be outpour'd
Alleluias to the Lord;
With Alleluia evermore
The Son and Spirit we adore.

Praise be done ro the Three in One.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Rev. Francis X. Weiser:

The deposito (discontinuance) of the Alleluia on the eve of Septuagesima assumed in mediaeval times a solemn and emotional note of saying farewell to the beloved song...

The liturgical office on the eve of Septuagesima was performed in many churches with special solemnity, and alleluias were freely inserted in the sacred text, even to the number of 28 final alleluias in the church of Auxerre in France. This custom also inspired some tender poems which were sung or recited during Vespers in honor of the sacred word. The best-known of these hymns is Alleluia, dulce carmen, composed by an unknown author of the 10th century. It was translated into English by John Mason Neale...

In some French churches the custom developed in ancient times of allowing the congregation to take part in the celebration of a quasi-liturgical farewell ceremony. The clergy abstained from any role in this popular service. Choirboys officiated in their stead at what was called burial of the Alleluia performed the Saturday afternoon before Septuagesima Sunday. We find a description of it in the 15th century statute book of the church of Toul:

On Saturday before Septuagesima Sunday all choir boys gather in the sacristy during the prayer of the None, to prepare for the burial of the Alleluia. After the last Benedicamus they march in procession, with crosses, tapers, holy water and censers; and they carry a coffin, as in a funeral. Thus they process through the aisle, moaning and mourning, until they reach the cloister. There they bury the coffin; they sprinkle it with holy water and incense it; whereupon they return to the sacristy by the same way.

In Paris, a straw figure bearing in golden letters the inscription Alleluia was carried out of the choir at the end of the service and burned in the church yard.

[Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs by Rev. Francis X. Weiser, SJ. Harcourt, Brace & World: New York, 1958]

CHARLEMAGNE DALMATIC

ATTAROUTHI TREASURE

FOSSIL IVORY and ODONTOLITE


13th century reliquary cross

Any revival of the venerable art of ecclesiastical ivory carving is hampered by restrictions on the ivory trade, consequences of the exorbitant poaching that has depopulated the African elephant herds. But for a legal alternative, fossil ivory from mastodons, mammoths and long-dead walruses can be used; this is actually cheaper than legal elephant ivory. Most fossil ivory is imported from Siberia.

Some fossil ivory has an extraordinary property, due to minerals that have leached into it over the millennia. When baked, it turns blue. In this form it is known as odontolite, or tooth-stone.

The process for creating odontolite was discovered by Cistercian monks in mediaeval France, who mined mastodon ivory from the Pyrenees. Odontolite can be found in numerous works of liturgical art. This article at the website of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility provides more information.

EARLY CATHOLIC AVIATORS, part V: FRANCESCO LANA de TERZI



Joseph MacDonnell, SJ:

In 1686 died the Father of Aeronautics, Fr. Francesco Lana-Terzi, SJ, professor of physics and mathematics at Brescia. Histories of flight refer to his work Prodromo dell'Arte Maestra (1670) as the the first publication to establish a theory of aerial navigation verified by mathematical accuracy and clearness of perception...

Lana's bold project was based on mathematical calculations and principles of physics. His work was translated by the physicist Robert Hooke in 1690 and was discussed by scientists throughout Europe for a century. It is no exaggeration to say that Lana's ideas lay behind the devlopment of the balloon and led to the successful flight of the Montgolfier brothers in 1783...

At the beginning of Lana's ambitious project, a compilaton of all science, is a collection of the recent inventions. Many of these are his own, such as a sewing machine,a reading device for the blind,a language for deaf and dumb, long-distance communication by cannon, a heavier-than-air flying chariot and finally his lighter-than-air aerial ship. For the latter he drew on the recently invented vacuum pump of Boyle, the experiments of Hooke, Torricelli and Otto von Guerick who demonstrated at Magdaburg that atmospheric pressure is so strong that it would take two teams of eight horses to pull apart an evacuated sphere. Lana proposed using the principle of the vacuum which would make his aparatus lighter than air and would float in the atmosphere. Unlike later balloonists who put something into the balloon, Lana would take all air out. Although his device proved impractical, his principles were sound.

Lana depended on five such principles. First, it had recently been demonstrated with the help of Robert Boyle's pump that air has weight. Secondly, the weight of the air can be calculated just as can the weight of water. Third, nearly all air can be exhausted from any vessel, as in the case of animal respiration. Fourth, from Euclid he knew that the area of a sphere varies with the square of the diameter while the volume (and therefore the mass) depends on its cube. So if a sphere has a large enough area it can have a predetermined mass of air inside. Finally, from Archimedes he knew that ligher bodies float in heavier fluids.

From this, Lana concludes that one could construst a vessel which would weigh less than the air within and so when the air had been pumped out the whole would float in the atmosphere. In fact if the vessel were made large enough it could support the weight of a ship with passengers. After caculating the weights and volumes involved the vessel he proposed consisted of four large twenty five foot spheres made of thin sheet copper bound together and supporting a basket for the riders with a sail and rudder for steering. After a long discussion of these principles Lana answers the objections to his proposal.

First the problem of evacuating the air could be accomplished by Boyle's pump. A second objection was that the air ship was liable to float off into outer space so that the riders would not be able to breathe. Lana shows unusual grasp of aerostatics by replying that the ship would stop rising as soon as the density of the atmosphere counter-balanced the weight of the ship. Landing the craft once it is air-borne is guarenteed by installing a valve to let air into the four spheres as ballast which would bring the ship back down to earth. The sail and a large rudder would take care of steering the ship so that it would not be blown away. Later experiments proved that a sail would not be an effective steering device.

The most serious problem Lana addresses and the one most scientists noticed was the fact that the spheres would be crushed by the atmosphere when the air was pumped out. Lana's answer was that the spherical shape would prevent it from being crushed because of the perfect uniformity of a sphere somewhat as an eggshell resists uniform pressure on its ends. He happened to be wrong in solving this last problem and so his proposed ship never did succeed. His expectation of landing ease was too optimistic also: There is no need for ports since the balloon could land anywhere. Lana's treatment was remarkably thorough for an era when experimental data was quite scarce.

Lana's influence on speculation for flight was of long duration. For over a century it was studied and discussed by scientists such as Sturm who had great praise for the plan and by Leibniz who verified Lana's calculations. Bernardo Zamaga was inspired to write a poem concerning Lana's Navis Aeria...

Lana never built the airship he described for several reasons. The first was that in his opinion God would never let such a dangerous innovation to succeed. His description of aerial bombing and air-borne invasion by his ship as well troop carrier are very accurate and are among the classic anticipations of modern warfare:

God would surely never allow such a machine to be successful, since it would create many disturbances in the civil and political governments of mankind. Where is the man who can fail to see that no city would be proof against his surprise,as the ships at any time could be manoeuvered over its public squares and houses? Fortreses, and cities could thus be destroyed, with the certainty that the aerial ship could come to no harm, as iron weights, fireballs and bombs could be hurled from a great height.

Lana's second reason was more personal:

I would willingly have (built such a ship) before publishing these my inventions, had not my vows of poverty prevented my expending 100 ducats, which sum at least would be required to satisfy so laudable a curiosity.

The sentiment of the time was enthusiasm for flying for pleasure, honor and profit and the benefit of all mankind. I hold it farre more honour to have been the first flying man, than to bee another Neptune, said Bishop Francis Godwin. Lana alone, so much a scientist and man of his own century, saw the possible destruction of civilization. It is ironic that he is at the head of the literature on the history of flight and is called the Father of Aeronautics.

More here.

See also:

Eilmer of Malmesbury
Kaspar Mohr
Bartolomeu de Gusmão
Jan Wnek

CHOIRMASTER'S STAFF

ICONOGRAPHER'S PRAYER



Denis of Fourna:

Lord Jesus Christ our God, uncircumscribed in Thy divine nature, having become inexpressibly incarnate for the salvation of man from the last things by the Virgin Mother of God, Mary, hast become worthy of circumscription. Who, having imprinted the sacred character of Thine immaculate face on the holy veil, and through this healing of the governor Agbar and bringing about enlightenment of his soul into the full knowledge of our true God; and Who, through the Holy Spirit brought wisdom to the holy apostle and evangelist Luke to depict the form of Thy most innocent mother, who carried thee in her arms as a child and said May the grace of Him Who was born of me, through me be imparted to them; the same, O God and Master of all thingsenlighten and bring wisdom to the soul and heart and mind of Thy servant _____ and direct these hands for the irreproachable and excellent depiction of the form of Thy person and of Thine immaculate Mother and of all Thy saints, to Thy glory and to the splendor and beautification of Thy holy Church, and the remission of the sins of those paying homage in regard to her and devoutly kissing and so bringing honor to the prototype; redeem him from all harm inflicted by the devil, as he diligently follows all the commands of the ministers of Thine immaculate Mother, of the holy and illustrious apostle and evangelist, Luke, and off all the saints. Amen.

LITURGICAL TREASURES from HILDESHEIM

CONVERSION of ST. PAUL



The story, according to James of Voragine.

Sequence by Adam of St. Victor:

Jubilemus Salvatori
Qui spem dedit peccatori
Consequendi veniam,
Quando Saulum increpavit
Et conversum revocavit
Ad matrem Ecclesiam.

Saulus, caedis et minarum
Spirans adhuc cruentarum
In Christi discipulos,
Impetravit ut ligaret;
Et ligatos cruciaret,
Crucifixi famulos.

Quem in via Christus stravit,
Increpatum excaecavit
Lucis suae radio;
Qui consurgens de arena,
Manu tractus aliena,
Clauditur hospitio.

Flet, jejunat, orat, credit,
Baptizatur; lumen redit
In Paulum convertitur
Saulus praedo nostri gregis;
Paulus praeco nostra legis
Sic in Paulum vertitur.

Ergo, Paule, doctor gentis,
Vas electum, nostrae mentis
Tenebras illumina,
Et per tuam nobis precem
Praesta vitam, atque necem
Aeternam elimina. Amen.

Englished by Digby S. Wrangham:

Let us joy, that Saviour praising,
Hope in sinners' bosoms raising,
That they pardon will obtain.
When He Saul severely chided,
And, converted, called and guided
Back to Mother-Church again.

Saul, still threats and slaughter breathing,
With blood-thirsty purpose seething,
'Gainst the Lord's disciples tried,
Powers obtained for apprehending,
And, when bound, with torture rending
Those who served the Crucified.

As he journeyed, Jesus struck him
To the earth, and, to rebuke him,
With His radiance made him blind;
Till, once more his feet regaining.
He, a guiding hand obtaining.
In a lodging is confined.

He laments, fasts, prays, believeth,
Is baptized, his sight receiveth;
Changed to Paul that Saul became
Who had been our flock's oppressor;
Paul, henceforth our law's professor.
Into Paul thus changed his name.

Therefore, Paul, the Gentiles' teacher!
Chosen vessel! as our preacher,
Light on our dark hearts outpour;
And, for us thy prayers employing,
Life for us obtain, destroying
Death that lasteth evermore! Amen.