I know I just wrote about the fantastic illuminated manuscript exhibit at The Met last week, but my mind is still on the incredible work in that show. I’ve been poring over the accompanying book (which my mom & dad were sweet enough to get me!) an the museum’s blog for the show, and I’m finding it all sorts of inspiring.
February, July, and September calendar images from the book of Belles Heures / All images from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
There’s an unbelievably fine level of detail and an unabashedly ornate and sumptuous approach to materials and design in these pages. The border decorations are intricate, careful, and lavish and the text is stunningly calligraphed. The inset miniature paintings (often in the neighborhood of 2″ x 3″ or smaller) are perfection and, while occasionally quotidian scenes, also depict stunningly violent and grotesque images of saints’ trials and martyrdom.
It’s only April, but I’m already on to calendar ideas for 2011. I’m drawing up a storm and I think I’ve got something fun in the works - and it’s definitely inspired by the illumination exhibit.
Image from Brooklyn Museum site / Walton Ford (American, b. 1960). The Far Shores of Scholarship, 2003. Watercolor, gouache, pencil, and ink on paper. Courtesy of Paul Kasmin Gallery
And, last but not least, I’m getting excited to see this Walton Ford show at Paul Kasmin Gallery in the next couple of weeks! There are also some beautiful intaglio etchings on view on the gallery’s site. We saw a fantastic exhibit of his work 3 1/2 years ago at the Brooklyn Museum and ever since then I can’t get enough!
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