Emblems from Sammlung Alchymistischer Schriften (Collection of Alchemical Writings), 18thC. The different colors & symbolic images represent stages of the alchemical process & the composition acts as…
Ever tried to paint a cat? Turns out, it’s not as easy as you might expect. It certainly wasn’t for these medieval artists anyway! While they excelled at painting religious scenes, portraits of Royalty and naked ladies, this particular type of pussy offered an altogether different challenge.
The Songbook of Zeghere van Male contains local and international 500 year old songs and motets. Made in 1542, the 1200-page long book is rich in illuminations, depicting ornamental and historiated initials and interlinear drawings not necessarily related to its content. Also known by its call number MS 125-128 in Cambrai’s Mediathèque Municipale, the late … Continue reading "Weird And Wonderful Illustrated Letters From A 16th Century Songbook"
In the margins of medieval history there’s a wealth of subversive – and often hillarious – art to be found.
You’ve seen SCA scrolls with miniatures, but you’ve never seen anything like THESE before! In the interest of keeping this a family-friendly site, we’re only using images that qua…
Breakfast Time [Cambrai, BM, MS 125]
Painting, courtier on horseback, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, Mughal, ca. 1750
“Jessie Bayes (b. 1876 Hampstead, London - d. 1970) was a British Arts & Crafts artist who specialized in miniature paintings, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, iconography and more.”
Medieval art is really confusing and quite random.
Where the problem of agency is concerned, as in cartomancy whose many rules have been derived from astrological correspondences, so in astrology. In classical astrology, as in classical fortunetell…
Clavis Artis is an alchemical manuscript published in Germany in three volumes in the late 17th or early 18th century...
Her husband tricks her into eating it.
Deer-snail #mondaymotivation @BLMedieval Stowe 17 f. 11r
