Book of Kells

Since high school, I have been fascinated with Celtic Art. The Book of Kells is an especially fine example. It is kept in air conditioned lock and key at the Old Library on the campus of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

The monks at Iona created the illuminations in the Book of Kells with a fairly simple grid system, but to master the technique takes hours of practice. Here are some videos that teach the simplest Celtic Knots. A fast celtic knot., and Celtic Knot 2. Compare these to the pictures below to see the difference.

Details from a page in the Book of Kells

One of the most famous illuminations: the gospels

A page from the gospel of Luke

Mary and Jesus

Picture Study - Lamentation of Christ

Here's Giotto di Bendone. He looks a little sour.

Coffee had not been introduced to Italy when he was working. Perhaps we should not judge him. The statue was carved in 1845, while Giotto died in 1337. This article is quite informative.

 At any rate, he was purportedly quite mischievous. According to one story, he painted a fly on one of his mentor's works of art. This caused poor Cimabue no end of grief as he tried to shoo the fly away several times before he realized it was painted and not real. Giotto is credited with being a major transitional artist from Byzantine style art to the more realistic styles of the Renaissance.

This book is by one of my favorite authors, Madeleine L'Engle. She took Giotto's artwork in the Scrovegni Chapel and put text to it. Wonderful! We will be making art on dark blue paper with gold foil and gold paint to imitate the style of these paintings.

Picture Study - Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950

Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950
by Jackson Pollock

When I am discouraged about the state of the Curly-headed girl's room, I remind myself to be thankful. She's not in there making a mess like this. (Thankfully, when she does art, she cleans up after herself.) Like the Curly-headed girl, Jackson was very liberal in his use of paint. We read this book to understand more about his work.

For fun, put paint in mustard and ketchup containers. Use sticks, flyswatters, and whatever else you have lying around to apply the paint. (Wear old clothes, this will get messy!) Apply your paint with abandon and don't forget to have fun!

And if you don't have the time/space for all that creativity, this is just too good to pass up. It's almost as much fun as the real thing (move your mouse around and click to change color).

Picture Study - Enthroned Madonna, four angels and St. Francis, detail

Enthroned Madonna, four angels and St. Francis, detail

We will be studying Cimabue next year and I am looking for pictures that show his highly stylized and relatively flat figures (compared to the Renaissance artists at least). Another good picture to study by Cimabue is Madonna Enthroned with Saints and Angels. Cimabue is considered to be primarily a Byzantine artist. (Edited 5/21 because I keep mixing him up with Giotto). His supposed pupil, Giotto, was highly innovative and broke from Byzantine tradition drastically. If you compare their Madonnas, it will be quite evident.

For some reason, this photo fascinates me. It is in much higher resolution at Wikimedia Commons - a good place to look for public domain pictures of art. I even found an engraving of the artist.