medieval shell and other palettes

Inspired by my laurel, Isabel Chamberlaine, and medieval painters, I've been collecting shells to prepare paint in (to use like a palette) and with (as a calcium source).

This website has many links to resources about medieval painting and painters including palettes, brushes and grounds:

http://www.larsdatter.com/painting.htm

Real oyster shells found in excavations around London:

http://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/59557/three-oyster-shells-with-traces-of-pigment-13th-century

Shells as paint holders and palettes in medieval illuminations:

De mulieribus claris (BNF Fr. 598), beginning of the 15th century
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84521932/f210.item.zoom

Possible painting from oyster shell: 1420, St. Luke
http://www.themorgan.org/collection/medieval-and-renaissance/manuscript/145545#overlay-context=collection/medieval-and-renaissance/manuscript/145545%3Fid%3D87

St. Luke 1425-30
http://corsair.themorgan.org/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=255341
detail of that page: http://corsair.morganlibrary.org/icaimages/4/m453.014va.jpg

Giovanni Colonna, Mare historiarum, ouest de la France 15th century
http://expositions.bnf.fr/fouquet/grand/f116.htm
Discussion about that page: http://expositions.bnf.fr/fouquet/pedago/dossiers/62/3/index.htm
Hopefully I will be able to read it some day! :)

1450-1460 St. Luke
http://resources42.kb.nl/MIMI/MIMI_76F2/MIMI_76F2_255R_MIN.JPG

1470-80 St. Luke, possible shells?
http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/ConsulterElementNum?O=IFN-8100206&E=JPEG&Deb=44&Fin=44&Param=C

The wise man and the fool in a book of love poetry
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=stowe_ms_955_f009~r


Brush tray
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84521932/f181.item.zoom


Using pen knife to hold parchment 1480-1490 St. Luke
http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/ConsulterElementNum?O=IFN-8100141&E=JPEG&Deb=32&Fin=32&Param=C


Cutting the pen:
1500 Portrait of a young artist
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/59891


Hand held wooden (?) palettes

De mulieribus claris (BNF Fr. 598), beginning of the 15th century
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84521932/f193.item.zoom
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84521932/f181.item.zoom

1420 St. Luke
http://corsair.themorgan.org/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=260674

1450-1460 St. Luke
http://resources42.kb.nl/MIMI/MIMI_76F2/MIMI_76F2_255R_MIN.JPG

c. 1460 St. Luke hand held palette and easel
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=5740

2nd half 15th c.
http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/ConsulterElementNum?O=IFN-8100206&E=JPEG&Deb=44&Fin=44&Param=C

Mercury's children
http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7008627.JPG

1475-1485
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hausbuch_Wolfegg_16r_Merkur.jpg

1490-1500 Zeuxis
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=38631

1495 St.Luke
http://resources42.kb.nl/MIMI/MIMI_135G19/MIMI_135G19_027V.JPG

15-16th century Timarete
http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/ConsulterElementNum?O=IFN-7904118&E=JPEG&Deb=1&Fin=1&Param=C

1500 St. Luke
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_35313_f012v

1505 Niklaß Kerner
http://www.nuernberger-hausbuecher.de/75-Amb-2-317-123-v

c. 1500-1525 St. Luke in a book of hours (MMW 10 E 3, fol. 19v),
http://resources42.kb.nl/MIMI/MIMI_MMW_10E3/MIMI_MMW_10E3_019V_MIN.JPG

1510 St. Luke
corsair.themorgan.org/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=260606

The Miracle of St. Francis of Paola, 16th century
http://balat.kikirpa.be/photo.php?objnr=40001697

St. Luke by Niklaus Manuel
http://www.wga.hu/art/m/manuel/lukepain.jpg

1520 St. Luke
http://corsair.themorgan.org/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=253264

1524. St. Luke in a book of hours (MMW 10 F 33, fol. 15v) by Jehan de Luc
http://resources42.kb.nl/MIMI/MIMI_MMW_10F33/MIMI_MMW_10F33_015V_MIN.JPG

1532 St. Luke
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/h/heemsker/1/lukepain.html

1530-60 St. Luke
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/h/heemsker/2/luke_pai.html

1548 Self-portrait of Caterina van Hemessen
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/h/hemessen/caterina/selfport.html

c. 1556 Self-portrait of Sofonisba Anguissola
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SofonisbaAuto.jpg

1558 Self-portrait of Anthonis Mor
http://balat.kikirpa.be/photo.php?objnr=40002685

after 1565 St. Luke painting the Virgin.
http://www.wga.hu/html_m/v/vasari/2/11annunz.html

c. 1575-1609 A young painter seen from behind by Annibale Caracci
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=63109001&objectId=714719&partId=1 

16th century http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/12-505617-2C6NU0WKA1MQ.html

1580s by Annibale Caracci
http://posner.library.cmu.edu/Posner/books/pages.cgi?call=390_S89N&layout=vol0/part0/copy0&file=0031

1584 Otto Venius painting, surrounded by his family
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Otto_van_Veen_-_The_Artist_Painting,_Surrounded_by_his_Family_-_WGA24343.jpg

1590 by Jacob Willemsz Delff
http://www.wga.hu/art/d/delff/jacob1/a_family.jpg

16th century self portrait Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem
http://balat.kikirpa.be/photo.php?objnr=20022289

16th century
http://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/10-512024-2C6NU0QZOQYF.html

16th century, a young man seated with his palette

1602 Marten Vos, St Luke painting the virgin
http://www.wga.hu/html_m/v/vos_m/lukepain.html

1603? Portrait of the Artist's Son Jorge Manuel Theotokopoulos by El Greco
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/g/greco_el/15/1511grec.html

Fine Cakes

I have made these little gems for years!  They make good gifts for friends, visiting royalty and relatives alike.

Medieval Recipe from The Widowes Treasury by John Partridge, 1585 and redacted by
Cindy M. Renfrow, author of Take a Thousand Eggs or More and A Sip Through Time as found here

To make fine Cakes. Take a quantity of fine wheate Flower, and put it in an earthen pot. Stop it close and set it in an Oven, and bake it as long as you would a Pasty of Venison, and when it is baked it will be full of clods. Then searce your flower through a fine sercer. Then take clouted Creame or sweet butter, but Creame is best: then take sugar, cloves, Mace, saffron and yolks of eggs, so much as wil seeme to season your flower. Then put these things into the Creame, temper all together. Then put thereto your flower. So make your cakes. The paste will be very short; therefore make them very little. Lay paper under them.

Baked flour: Take some flour (4 cups, unsifted, made enough) and bake, covered, at 350F for about 1hr 15min, until slight color change and a nutty smell.

To every 3 cups of sifted baked flour, take the following:
1 1/2 cups butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon clove powder
1/4 teaspoon mace powder
1/2 pinch saffron, crumbled
3 egg yolks

Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the spices and egg yolks, and beat to mix thoroughly. Add the flour, and beat until smooth. Use a non-stick cookie sheet, or line a cookie sheet with baking parchment. Take the dough, 1 level teaspoonful at a time, and roll into small balls with your hands. (Resist the temptation to make them larger -- they won't cook in the middle if they're too big.) Flatten the balls slightly, and place them 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed and golden around the edges. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

Urchins recipe

 

Quick little queen of the East

Known in song as the quick little queen of the east, Alexandre Saint Pierre and I wrote these words for Duchess Anna's scroll:

An Eastern Tiger in Truth

All hear tell of Anna Ophelia
Halloway Tarragon.
Mother, duchess, equestrian.
She is a shining beacon,
a paragon of virtue,
an example for us all
in either peace or war.
Thus we, Brennan & Coailfhionn
swiftly name her a Tyger of the East
on this xxx of January, a.s. l.



Which were quickly and deftly translated into Latin by Steffan ap Kennydd

Tigris Orientalis Vero

Omnes cognoscant Annam Opheliam Holloviam Tarragon.
Matrem, ducissam, caballariam.
Haec est ignis nitidus, specimen virtutis
Exemplar pro nobis omnibus
Et in pace et in bello
Itaque Nos Brennan et Caolfhionn
Eam dicimus velociter
Tigrem Orientis
Hoc die XXX [tricesimo] Januaris anno Societatis L [quinquagesimo].

Phrase of the Month

alenda lux ubi orta libertas

Light [is] to be nourished where liberty [has] arisen. Or "let learning be cherished..."

Cardweaving, beginner class.

Cardweaving, beginner class.

History

Card woven finds as early as the 3^rd century. Edging fabric in the 6^th century. Bands have been found woven of wool, linen, silk, cotton, and combinations of these. Cards have been found made of wood, ivory, bone, leather and other substances with 4-8 holes.

Weaving

The only thing you need for card weaving are cards and thread. Other aids include shuttle, beater, comb and loom.

Patterns

Warping pattern and the turning pattern control the final result. The weft will only show a bit on the edges and diagonally. The kits are warped for this pattern with 16 blue, 10 red and 14 tan:

From Card Weaving by Candace Crockett. Isbn 0-934026-61-0

A common turning pattern is four turns forward and four turns back. Mix it up by turning in sets of six. You could turn all in one direction but ultimately you will either end up twisting the warp threads so much there will be no room to turn the cards or reversing the direction so they unravel.

Formula for warp length = 1.2 x final length + 50 cm http://www.stringpage.com/tw/basictw.html

Weaving the kit

Thread the cards in your pattern from front to back. Tie the four threads from each card in a knot and move on to the next card until they're all threaded in a stack spaced several inches from the knots. In your next project you can experiment with threading some of the cards from the back to the front (S vs Z threading) alternately or half of your pattern.

When you have threaded all the cards tie them all together at one end. Comb the threads with your fingers as you hold your cards, smooth them out as much as you can (a wide toothed comb can be helpful here) and trim and tie the other end in a knot as well.

Fasten your weaving so that it's under tension. One end tied to a doorknob or stationary object, the other end tied to your waist is one option.

Make sure all the cards are aligned with A-D on the top and you can put your hand in the space in the middle (the shed). Put your weft thread through this space and let it dangle about 4” out the other side. Turn your cards ¼ turn away from you. Slide your cards a little forward and back if you need to to clear space for the beater or your hand in the new shed and beat down the threads. Pass the weft back through the new shed and repeat until A-D is on the top again (you will have completed 4 turns. Now do 4 turns toward you. Repeat this 4 away and 4 toward once more and check to see if you like the pattern.

Happy Weaving! ~Adrienne d'Evreus adrienne.devreus@gmail.com 207-651-5837

SCA Scroll Layout, Introduction and References

Scroll Layout for SCA Awards

By: Adrienne d'Evreus

Adrienne.dEvreus@gmail.com 1.207.651.5837

In the East Kingdom, awards are often accompanied by scrolls. Scrolls are made by volunteers given assignments by the East Kingdom Signet. I am one of those volunteers and I hope someday soon you will be too!

When planning a scroll, the first place I start is with the assignment itself, the recipient's name and title, the award being given and any information about the reason for the award if it's available. I reach out to the contact I have been given and research the information I have received about the recipient including the nationality and time period of their persona.

Cennino Cennini, a 14^th century artist says, "Strive and delight always to copy the best things you can find, made by the hand of great masters." (Broecke 47) This medieval craftsman teaches us to make tracing paper (Broecke 46). I delight in the fact that copying was traditional and tracing paper was used by some medieval scribes. Remember, you are a volunteer, this should be fun! We're here to learn about history and re-create it. These scrolls should enrich your life as well as the life and home of the recipient.

So, in books and online, find sources that fit your recipient's persona and modify them with information from the Scribe's Handbook and information from Ygraine'shandout to lay out your design.

Based on frame sizes at Michaels, Alexandre Saint Pierre put together this table, which I find very helpful.

Mat Opening Size	Maximum Artwork Size
3.5x5"	3x4.5"
4x6"	3.5x5.5"
5x7"	4.5x6.5"
6x8"	5.5x7.5"
8x10"	7.5x9.5"
8.5x11"	8x10.5"
10x13"	9.5x12.5"
11x14"	10.5x13.5"

From the Scribe's Handbook we can see some common frame sizes:

4x6", 5x7", 8x10", 8.5x11", 10x20", 11x14", 12x16", 16x20"

Thank you for your time and interest in re-creating medieval and renaissance pieces of art. Have fun and feel free to contact me with questions or for help.

References:

Broecke, Lara. Cennino Cennini's Il Libro Dell'Arte, A new English traslation and commentary with Italian trascription. 2015.

Brown, Jamin. Personal communication with Alexandre Saint Pierre

Kell, Susan. Scroll Layout for SCA Awards by Mistress Ygraine of Kellswood. 2002, 2007.

http://signet.eastkingdom.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/EK-Scribes-Handbook-2015.pdf