Medieval calligraphy and illumination - Damselfly, Carnation, Insect, Caterpillar, Ladybird

by Moira Risen Prints

Title

Medieval calligraphy and illumination - Damselfly, Carnation, Insect, Caterpillar, Ladybird

Artist

Moira Risen Prints

Medium

Drawing - Ink And Pencil

Description

Damselfly, Carnation, Insect, Caterpillar, Ladybird, English Walnut, and Marine Mollusk - medieval calligraphy and illumination, pages from the 16th century manuscript Mira calligraphiae monumenta.

Mira calligraphiae monumenta is a model book of calligraphy with more than 100 colorful pages demonstrating different writing styles, complemented with illuminations of flowers, fruits, insects and other animals.

The manuscript has a unique history, it's a collaboration of two exceptional artist who've never met.

The calligraphic part was created from 1561 to 1562 in Vienna by György Bocskay, Hungarian court secretary to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, to demonstrate the superiority of hand writing over printing, that became the most common method of producing books in the 1500s.

Thirty years later Emperor Rudoph II commissioned painter Joris Hoefnagel to illuminate the pages with different objects of nature. Hoefnagel completed the manuscript from 1591 to 1596, using a technique that was exceptional in that era and also influenced the development of Netherlandish still life painting.

The pages are digitally cleaned and restored but retain the texture and details of the original manuscript, now owned by the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Uploaded

March 18th, 2022

Embed

Share

Tags