Well I have been absent for a bit. But that was because I have been down my own personal rabbit hole. I have been on a long holiday in Italy and had a serious dose of medieval history and architecture, seen new sights and learnt a bit about myself :-). I have not been to Europe before and it was an eye opener for me.
I have always been attracted to medieval imagery and colours be they bright or faded, drawn, painted or woven. I was in seventh heaven to see it for real.
I really wanted to see embroidery and found that (other than clerical vestments) paintings were generally the best way to get an idea of costume which was highly embellished with gold and silk and amazing laces. Here are a couple of images from the Civic Museum in Padua.
I was really taken with the painting of a boy (above). I have plans to try and make an art doll which reflects this image.
And I was staggered by the detail in the woven tapestries. The following are a couple of deails from the huge tapestry in the same museum. Check out what the horses got to wear in the second image below.
And for imagery that borders on the bizzare .. Giotto's version of the devil and hell in the Scrovegni Chapel.
I am still processing all that we saw. No doubt a seed of an idea (or two or more) is bubbling away. I posted back a lot of tourist information and am yet to start working through it. I have great plans to draw on that material and my photos as a jumping off point for some new works. Padua is a town of arches/arcaded buildings ... ideas for some linio prints perhaps?
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