Idols, Images and Ideals: Contemporary Illuminations as Medium and Concept

"A NEW DARK AGE"

Illuminations

Illustration is an art form that shows a re-imagining and re-presenting of reality. It is a humored and stylized version of how we see our world, where our perspectives and experiences shape the story we tell about ourselves. Illuminations were the precursor to the traditional book illustration we are so familiar with today. Hand painted illustrations with gold-leaf adorn Latin writing, and in illuminations these illustrations often epitomize medieval life in the middle ages.

In an age of great poverty, there were still facilities for creating masterpieces of art of great value. Wealth demonstrated in art endured with gilding and gold-leaf, and the Church was one of the few entities who had the financial supply at hand along with an unlimited appeal for decadence to fund such works of art. There are many periods of time where gold was a sign of wealth and power, and during the middle ages it was often adorning relics and placed in churches as a demonstration of that wealth and power that was given by the 'grace of god'.

But gold has an older power over mankind, and the reverence for it goes back millennia. Gold has been said to have a direct connection to the Sun, to God, and represents enlightenment, understanding and the light of heaven. It is displayed as a halo or nimbus around the head of saints, is worn by kings claiming descendance from the almighty, and has been used in many civilizations throughout time to show individual significance.

Gold in art today is unnecessary, the value of the art not being derived by its material. It can be used as a critique on the overevaluation or commodification of art, a form of being ironically superfluous or appealing to the elite. The sanctity of gold-leaf has been eroded over time as it now a common craft material, no longer captivating with its radiance as it once did. The television screen and smartphone shine brighter, and so even with intricate gold detail, art may not retain attention.

Medieval Society

During much of the middle ages in Europe, the Catholic Church controlled most of the facilitation of artwork and often restricted imagery to religious themes. Churches were the few institutions that could afford the costly expenditures that artwork often entailed. Until the protestant reformation and the Renaissance, Christian iconography dominated the art scene just as the theology dominated European politics, trade and war.

Classical Greek and Roman art had yet to be rediscovered or recognized for its lost idealism and classical style and so art in the middle ages often lacked the realistic rendering of the human form. Anatomy lost accurate proportions, faces and forms became simplified, and perspective lost logic and continuity. While some artforms like architecture and mosaics retained or improved in ingenuity, painting lost in aptitude in many regards.

Scribes and monks were some of the last individuals to retain skills of writing, calligraphy and illustration... had they not been so secluded and isolated in monasteries, their talents may have been lost to time. Hand-copying bibles word for word, and adorning them with detailed, gold-laden illuminations, the monks became the chronologists and historians, story-tellers and artists of the middle ages. They depicted stories from holy scripture, daily life and fantasies all their own... inspired by their faith and executed with practiced skill. By the sacrifice of the hermit, we are inspired by these illuminations.

Today, artists become the scribes and spiritual historians, the ones who record the zeitgeist of the time. When artists are censored or restricted, the work they create cannot be fully told. Should they become reclusive in order to maintain a legacy like that which survived the last dark age?

Saint Francis, 2025. Gold leaf and pigment, 5"x 9".

The Idol and Martyr

Events and history must be recorded or preserved in some regard to be recalled. Artwork allows us to recall and recollected what once was, through imagery, symbols, themes and motifs. These themes reverberate through time. How people are presented in art often defines how they are remembered... that is why emperors and kings, popes and dictators care so much about their image.

When an artist presents someone in reverence, they create idols and role-models for the future generations. Whether saints or martyrs, kings or tyrants, hero-ifying the dead has been a long-standing tradition in depicting figures. Showing their best side, they are presented as bigger than life, an ever-lasting memento mori. We create and idolized those we want to celebrate. Artists have a duty and ability to raise up those we find deserving of recognition, and when they are lost and can no longer continue their own cause, artist can step in and carry that torch.

Traditional martyrs of Christian faith became common imagery in illuminated manuscripts, and they were often depicted in situations that demonstrated their greatness or faith. The sacrifices that truth-bringers bear goes down in history on paper and in our minds, even centuries later.

The Image

Creating meaning in images that speak to our contemporary time, and one that echoes the the sentiments and predicaments of the past, opens a dialog for us to compare the two.

Our lives have not changed as much as we'd like to think over the generations... we all still get up in the morning and have to navigate life. Seeing that life reflected in artwork of the past and echoing to the present shows the humanity found in all of us, and that shared humanity is told in images that speaks throughout the ages.