IIn the National library in Bern, Switzerland, is found a treasure of a manuscript known as the Bern Physiologus. It is a 9th century book with a lot of illustrations of animals with the intent of portraying certain characteristics of these creatures in an allegorical sense. My primary fascination with this work is that it shows a still very real and strong connection to the Roman Empire in the second quarter of the 9th century. We often hear and read of the "fall of the Roman Empire" but in the 9th century, someone forgot to give that memo to those in control of the Carolingian Dynasty, and they saw themselves as the very real and unbroken continuators of said Empire. As such, many of the artists and architects continued on with their own versions of "late Antique" styles, including the illustrator of this Bern Physiologus.
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| In progress view of my version of this painting. |
The hand of this particular illustrator can be seen in several other surviving works from the period as well. Later manuscripts show that this particular "school" (a modern Art History word to denote a recognisable style produced by a groupe of artist over a period of decades.) of painting lasted well into the last quarter of the century, showing that whoever this original artist was, he must have been very well known and respected in his day and made a lasting impression on the field of art in the Carolingian world. From his work, one can see that he very much admired, respected, and above all, still had a lot of actual Roman art from which to draw inspiration from, at his disposal.
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| The original Lady and the Unicorn from the Bern Physiologus Some details have been obliterated from centuries of wear |
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| An illustration from the Virgilus Vaticanus At the time of the Bern Physiologus this would already have been about 400 years old but the influence of this style on the 9th century work is instantly recognisable. |
I have already produced a couple works based on this manuscript and have posted them on this blog. Recently, I felt compelled to do another. As is typical of myself, however, I did not make a direct copy; just as every medieval artist took inspiration from something that he saw, and made it his own, I also put my own interpretations and subtle changes into what I produced. In this case, I particularly made changes to the "virgin". The original illustration is about 40 per cent smaller than my panel, so it was proper, in my mind, to give more detail to the woman's face and clothing, a possibility which the scale allowed for. I thus chose, as my model, another 9th century illumination for the source of inspiration of a new and more detailed face.
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| Two other works that were also inspired from the same manuscript, The first one, I cropped part of the image, the original had another bird and tree. The second one, I added the background as the original just had the figure on a blank page. |
For the painting itself, I went again to my egg tempera recipe, a painting medium and technique that I am really learning to love and enjoy working with. I also prepared a panel as per the ancient treatises on the proper methods of painting and made a panel of wood with many layers of gesso applied and then scraped down to a smooth satin feeling surface. I then used a silver stylus to draw in the design. After that, the actual painting began. I was so engrossed in the work that it was nearly half finished before taking any more pictures of it.
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| The lady on the far lower left was my source for the face and garment |
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| Gesso panel prepared and the design sketched in (rather hard to see as silver point is not very dark) |
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| This was how far I had gotten before I thought of taking another picture. The pencil was placed for scale |
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| The completed painting |
One thing that I noticed, after finishing the painting is that her arm looks very long. I compared it to the original, and the proportion is right, but because her shawl is draped different, it is not as noticeable in the original.
