Annunciation

Last illuminure of the year* - The Annunciation, based on an early 15th century Dutch Book of Hours. The "tiles" background is a very common type of background decoration during the 14th century, and it can be found in early 15th century manuscripts, although a more naturalistic type of background started to be more prominent. Personally I prefer the latter style, and this kind of tile painting is a huge time consuming process, but, allas no one can deny it has a more "trully" medieval aspect. :)

(*I can't promise anything!!:)

And as bonus, here's a photo of almost all the materials and tools I use during the process of drawing and painting an illuminure. 

And finally, my "medieval sketchbook" made by my friend Maria do Céu Ferreira.

Tempus fugit

A month without any post! That doesn't mean we have been lazy, but exactly the opposite. Last month we visited the public library of Evora where we had the chance to see in hands a couple of 15th century book of hours and an English manuscript from ca. 1450 which was offered to Afonso V, king of Portugal (1438-1481). To appreciate such pieces of medieval art in our bare hands it's an unique and remarkable experience.

On another and mostly surprisingly occasion, we saw for the first time a medieval "pocket calendar", a facsimile of the exemplar from Ljubljana Library (Slovenia). It's a rare document, not many medieval calendars have survived, and I couldn't resist myself to try and make one. The original is from 1415.

 The calendar has the name of the 12 months and a picture of the month's main labor in the fields. Along side with the months, each space has a smal graphic representing the average light and dark hours and also the corresponding zodiac sign.