Coral Branch scroll for Lisbet of Spinning Winds

Order of the Coral Branch scroll for Lisbet of Spinning Winds, awarded on 1 April 2023 by Afshin and Yasamin at Atlantia's Spring Coronation.

Materials: Higgins Ink, gouache, Fine-tec liquid gold on Bristol paper
Script: Textura Quadrata
Text:
Potent is the foundation of a Kingdom
Whose populace enjoys sweet music.
A true King and Queen must honor its great musicians
so that all may know of their worth.

Thus do Afshin & Yasamin, King and Queen of Atlantia,
recognize our subject Lisbet of Spinning Winds for
her wondrous musical talents, and do induct her into
Our Order of the Coral Branch.
and Award her Arms, to wit:

Done this first day of April A.S LVII
at Spring Coronation in Our Barony of Storvik.

RESEARCH AND CONCEPT

From my research, I learned that the recipient is primarily a choral singer, but also plays the flute, particularly as an accompaniment. Since I wasn't able to uncover evidence of any particular period, I defaulted to seeking 14th-15th century exemplars from northern Europe.

DESIGN AND CALLIGRAPHY

I settled on this piece as my design exemplar, from which I drew the layout, border illumination, and calligraphic hand. I really liked the large illuminated initial, and had a lot of ideas on how I wanted to actualize that.

I identified the script as Textura Quadrata, and opted to use a combination of this and the exemplars from Harris' Art of Calligraphy for my final.

Leaf from a Book of Hours, 15th century, Netherlands. Victoria & Albert Museum
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1043137/manuscript-cutting/

For the initial, I found this exemplar while conducting research. However I forgot to capture the cite and was unable to dig it up again. I'm fairly confident it was from a Book of Hours and the surrounding calligraphy roughly matched the time period I'm using elsewhere, so I opted to use its design in the final.

Penciled design

Starting calligraphy

Finished calligraphy

I realized too late that textura quadrata takes way more space than I expected, so I needed to adjust some design elements and extend the overall piece downwards.

I had anticipated this may be a problem, and left myself extra space in the lower margin, but it was *just* enough to squeeze by. If I had to do this again, I would've used a smaller nib and would've been more rigorous about keeping a tighter letter spacing.

INSET INITIAL

I wanted to change the initial from the above exemplar to reflect something of the recipient's musical skill. Since my artistic interests are tending towards portraiture, I chose an insert from a choir book (below left) as inspiration; opting to adjust to to make Jesus and his Apostles more closely resemble the recipient and other choir members.

Early 14th century, from a choir book. Victoria and Albert Museum
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1042497/historiated-initial-from-a-choir-manuscript-cutting-di-bonaguida-pacino/

Penciling

Initial painting

ILLUMINATION AND DETAIL

I strayed from the exemplar a bit because I wanted to rosy color palette and spring-like colors to emphasize that this was to be awarded at Spring Coronation. I also wanted a more visually interesting border than pure vinework, since I wouldn't be introducing other complex elements into it, like animals or figures.

First color wash

Detailed painting

Completed illuminated initial. Added details to inset

Added gilding

FINAL DETAILS

I thought I was done. But on my final read-through, hours before this piece was meant to be delivered, I was horrified to discover that Titivilus had struck! A letter was stolen from Queen Yasamin's name and it was up to this trusty scribe's brush and pen to fix that in time.

Rats to the rescue! I grabbed an exemplar of rats from the Northumberland Bestiary to resolve this issue. While the exemplar was from a slightly older period than the rest of the scroll, I wanted a fairly simple design, so as not to draw attention from the text, and I liked the basic way these rats were depicted.

Northumberland Bestiary, fol 33, about 1250-1260. Getty Museum
https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/109AX3

Rough pencil