Finally, a Romanesque letter! The Romanesque style of manuscript illumination is by far my favorite and this illuminated F is based on one of my all time favorite manuscripts, the Saint Erentrud Orational.
I once described Romanesque manuscript illumination to someone as 'cartoony.' I realized as I said it that it sounded like I was denigrating the style. That was not my intention at all. In fact, I meant it as a compliment. I meant to invoke the highly stylized nature of many cartoons and their use of bold, primary colors, both of which are elements I see immediately when I look at a Romanesque period illuminated manuscript.
There are many famous Romanesque manuscripts and I do plan on making a letter inspired by one of them, (maybe an L based on the Bury Bible or something from the Winchester Bible). But my favorite Romanesque manuscript is the Saint Erentrud Orational and it is not nearly as well known, which boggles my mind. I love it so much that this is the second time I have made something based on it. Check out this much larger piece I made last year.
The Saint Erentrud Orational is currently housed in the Bavarian State Library, but I accessed high-quality digital scans of it through the Library of Congress (there are a surprising number of digital copies of medieval manuscripts from other collections available through that portal). It was created in Salzburg, Austria in the very late 12th century, near the end of the Romanesque movement. It is a highlight of the German style of Romanesque and it characterized by truly bold colors, lots of vines, stylized floral elements, little animals peeking out here and there, and Byzantine-influenced human figures. It contains two Fs that I used as a model for my own permutation.
I preferred the shape of the second F, but I liked the painting of the vines more from the first, so I made something of a mish-mash of the two. The illuminated letters from the Saint Erentrud Orational are also flat gilded and I decided to use raised gilding instead, using traditional gesso I made at home (want to know how? Click here). With that intro, here is my Romanesque F.
Some other differences to note: Romanesque illuminationators created shading just by using blocks of similar colors next to each other. I chose to blend my colors instead, creating a smoother transition from dark to light.
Want an in-depth look at all the work that went into making this? Here are a series of videos that track my Romanesque F from the design process, the gilding, and then the painting.
THE DESIGN PROCESS
GILDING THE LETTER
PAINTING THE LETTER, PART 1
PAINTING THE LETTER, PART 2
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