Thursday, February 25, 2010

Medieval Macabre and Font Research


I was trying to concentrate only on church arcade sculptural imagery from the Romanesque Period which depicts scenes of hell and the torture of humans who lead an "immoral" or impious life. This imagery was a prime instructional tool of the medieval period to lead people away from paganism and oddly enough away from the fanciful mythology of the Roman and Greek culture.




I found quite a bit of Medieval imagery, but not specifically from the Romanesque arcades. I'm looking for that high contrast stone work just jam packed with people getting tortured. I'm going to draw a small set. I'm mountiing it on foamcore and driving my new HDSLR (fingers crossed I get it tomorrow after I get paid...) through the scenery for the opening shot of the short film I previously mentioned working on, which is tentatively called Lisolette and Gregory.













I am also looking at text from Medieval manuscripts and attempting to create writing in the visual aspects of this work which looks as if it says something but the characters will not actually mean anything. I'm very interested in the use of written and verbal language in art, as language is both beautiful and practical for communication but highly inefficient in some aspects. Language, while noble in its attempt, can never describe certain personal experiences. This is a thought I've mulled over lately which was inspired by recent discussions about Buddhism.





I will continue paring down the visual research until I find the exact period I'm looking for, and the imagery I know exists... I remember from art history, eight years ago. Surely I remember correctly...

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