#Medievalism

[lionofchaeronea]

Hellelil and Hildebrand (The Meeting on the Turret Stairs), Frederic William Burton, 1864

[eve-to-adam]

I had a moment of enthusiasm and it shows.

Henry V x Catherine of Valois sketches.

[the-spirit-of-yore]

Lady Godiva, John Collier, 1898, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, Great Britain

[realbeefman]

You like history, Alex?

[medievalistsnet]

New Medieval Books: Authentically Medieval: Authors and Scholars on Depicting the Middle Ages in Fiction

[lunellum]

I've seen some folks criticise the Decameron (the Netflix show) for not being "authentic" and "accurate" enough for

being too colourful

being too horny

being too silly and not serious enough when it comes to the subject of death and pandemic...

To which I would like to say they've clearly never looked into actual medieval history, culture and literature.

[vulturevalentines]

B is for bēo  (Old English for bee)

The epic hero Bēowulf's name translates literally to bee-wolf, which is likely a kenning meaning bear.

[upennmanuscripts]

On December 12, Curators Dot Porter and Nick Herman will be joined by Conservation Librarian Tessa Gadomski. We'll look at an as-yet uncataloged book of hours, written in the late 19th century. It was featured in an unboxing video in January, 2023:

Coffee With A Codex is an informal lunch or coffee time to meet virtually with Kislak curators and talk about one of the manuscripts from Penn's collections. Each week we'll feature a different manuscript and the expertise of one of our curators. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Register here:

[missmedievalism]

[classic-art-favourites]

The Crystal Ball by John William Waterhouse, 1902.

[endyillustration]

Gawain and the Green Knight

[lionofchaeronea]

Title: The Fairy Wood Artist: Henry Meynell Rheam (English, 1859-1920) Date: 1903 Genre: fantasy art; medievalism Medium: pencil and watercolor on paper Dimensions: 72.1 cm (28.3 in) high x 77.2 cm (30.3 in) wide Location: private collection

[beaftlynatures]

Here's some of the @jstor articles I've found really interesting in this line of study:

From my gender/sex variance studies

Erecting Sex: Hermaphrodites and the Medieval Science of Surgery

Mary or Michael? Saint-Switching, Gender, and Sanctity in a Medieval Miracle of Childbirth

The Image of the Androgyne: Some Uses of a Symbol in Earliest Christianity

Transvestites in the Middle Ages

Two Cases Of Female Cross-Undressing In Medieval Art And Literature

Concerning Sex Changes: The Cultural Significance of a Renaissance Medical Polemic

Relating to disability

Sitting on the Sidelines: Disability in Malory

A Dwarf in King Arthur's Court: Perceiving Disability in Arthurian Romance

Disability and Dreams in the Medieval Icelandic Sagas

The Disabled and the Monstrous: Examples from Medieval Spain

Relating to sexuality

Sexual Fluidity “Before Sex"

The Disclosure of Sodomy in Cleanness

"Be more strange and bold": Kissing Lepers and Female Same-Sex Desire in "The Book of Margery Kempe

I will continue to update this list of sources as I find pertinent articles!

Your mileage may vary on these, not all of these have the most tactful or respectful dialogues but I found them interesting.

[zombieunicornjewelry]

Morning Star earrings

[city-of-ladies]

Guda: a medieval self-portrait

Self-portrait of Guda, homilary, Frankfurt, second half of 12th century.

"The first category of figures we have considered shows the artist present in the work or in the process of creating it. To that category, we add a second type of portrait or self-portrait, in which the artist beseeches a favorable judgment for him-/herself after the work is completed.

Such is the case with the famous signed self-portrait of Guda, who represents herself within a collection of homilies in an initial D[ominus] for the octave of the Pentecost. The inscription reads: “guda peccatrix mulier scripsit q[ue] pinxit h[un]c librum (Guda, a sinful woman, wrote and painted this book).” Of the seven initials in the manuscript, this D is one of only two that contain figures. The other historiated initial comes at folio 196, the opening of the Assumptio Mariae, and contains a portrait of the virgin identified as Maria Virgo. The other five initials display dragons, interlaces, ribbons, or spirals.

Guda represented herself firmly grasping the initial with her left hand and raising her right in a gesture of salutation and expectation. I would argue that Guda carefully and consciously chose to be here. The initial opens the ninth homily of St. John chrysostom, the Sermo beati iohannes episcopi de david ubi goliad immanem hostem devicit (Sermon of the blessed Bishop John, on when David overcame the monstrous enemy Goliath), which explains the election of David. The homily also offers an occasion to meditate on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and its role in comforting the soul. In short, Guda has chosen the perfect spot in which to await the Second Coming of Christ, and this is why she represents herself as a sinner, whose activity as an artist should count in her favor at the end of time.

Guda’s self-representation in this way is analogous to the scene the scribe Swicher has staged (for the reader?) in the frontispiece of his copy of isidore of Seville’s Etymologies. Swicher’s author portrait is most original. In the upper register, Isidore of Seville is depicted in conversation with Bishop Braulio of Zaragoza, the patron of the Etymologies. In the lower register, Christ in propria persona presides at the scribe’s last judgment. Two angels busy themselves at a balance in which is weighed the very manuscript Swicher copied. The work of the scribe counts as a work of virtue: a third angel takes Swicher’s soul away through a thick cloud, whereas the devil turns around empty-handed. The Titulus attests to this: "O god, deign to have mercy on this wretched scribe. Do not consider the weight of my faults. Small though the good things may be, let them be exalted over the bad. Let night give way to light; let death itself give ground to life.”

Guda and Swicher make use of the same patterns of visibility and those patterns are not gender-specific. In both cases, the artists stage their humility and represent their belief that they might reach the heavenly kingdom through the artistic work they have done."

Mariaux Pierre Alain, "Women in the making: early medieval Signatures and artists’ portraits (9th–12th c.)", in: Reassessing the Roles of Women as 'makers' of Medieval Art and Architecture