The Story of a Shoe

(but first, a smiling sun, a solemn moon and a couple of dahlias...)

 

On Divers Arts: (De diversis artibus, a title stolen from Theophilus Presbyter, who wrote a treatise on art and stained glass almost a thousand years ago).* 

 I place an asterisk here to refer you below (at the end of this post) to the publisher's notes on the Dover translation of Theophilus' fascinating and arcane work. The intro is worth looking at, if only to learn the secret of how to harden metal tools. This fascinating book itself is available on Kindle.

Disclaimer: 

You are forgiven if you are not willing to give up 8 minutes or so of your life for this blend of art and alchemy. So feel to scroll down if you want.

I'm using one piece— the quester's shoe—to show you the process of getting a piece of glass from pattern to painted. This first video shows cutting. No narration, just Schubert. Not a bad background.

Three more short videos follow showing the rather arcane process of painting on stained glass. Three rather than one since the program likes that better, and keeps the files smaller and more manageable.

The techniques haven't changed since the early middle ages, except that I have a computer chip-driven kiln so I don't have to stay up all night tending the fire and opening closing vents.There is something to be said for technology. A lot to be said, in fact. 

First Video:  mixing the #$@%!!@ paint

Second: Painting technique

 

Third: retouching before the fire.

 

One last image: Fired pieces laid out on the table. recall that there will be black grout between the pieces in the final installation. The drapery on the red robe still needs to be painted and fired.


 

Change in the air. The man on the bridge a week ago was right: Winter's around the corner. Woke up on Monday morning to find sprinkles of snow on the upper ranges of hills.  Plain is about 1800-2000 ft. in elevation, so the snow is still up a ways, but lovely none the less. Last year no snow until Thanksgiving. Go figure. View out my front door:

 

 

A little Jan Arp still life, discovered  on the studio floor, while sweeping.  Art everywhere you look, if you look.

 

 

Finally, since Sept. 30 was the feast of St. Jerome, patron of librarians, scripture scholars, and cantankerous old men, here's Durer's wonderful engraving of his study. 

 
 

I'd love it, but for the lion.  

Finally: 

* From On Divers Arts: “If you study it diligently you will find here whatever kinds of the different pigments Byzantium possesses and their mixtures; whatever Russia has learned in the working of enamels and variegation with niello; whatever Arab lands adorn with repoussé or casting or openwork; whatever decoration Italy applies to a variety of vessels in gold or by the carving of gems and ivories; whatever France loves in the costly variegation of windows; and whatever skilful Germany applauds in the fine working of gold, silver, copper, and iron, and in wood and precious stones. - Theophilus

"I have made it my concern to hunt out this technique for your study as I learned it by looking and listening." On Divers Arts, c. 1122, is the oldest extant manual on artistic crafts to be written by a practicing artist. Before Theophilus, manuscripts on the arts came from scholars and philosophers standing outside the actual profession. On Divers Arts describes actual 12th-century techniques in painting, glass and metalwork, which the Benedictine author wished to pass on to those gifted by God with a talent for making beautiful things.

This translation of the medieval manuscript most essential to an understanding of pre-Renaissance art and technology is the result of a collaboration between a Latin scholar and a metallurgist. Their fully annotated edition presents complete bibliographic and biographic data, with 18 illustrations of surviving work in the manner of Theophilus, including examples by the Benedictine monk Roger of Helmarshausen, who appears to be the true author using a Byzantine pseudonym. Theophilus teaches, with rigorous attention to fact but also with great reverence, the making of pigments for fresco painting, the manufacture of glue, the technique of gold leaf on parchment (the first recorded European reference to true paper), how to blow glass and design stained glass windows, fashion gold and silver challices, make a pipe organ and church bells. Precise instruction on enamelling, chasing, repoussé, niello, and beaded wire work prove Theophilus' first-hand knowledge of his craft.

While 90% of Theophilus is sound technical knowledge, medieval folk lore occasionally spices his text: "Tools are also made harder by hardening them in the urine of a small red-headed boy than by doing so in plain water." But the magnificent fact of On Divers Arts remains its status as the first technical treatise on painting, glass and metalwork, for which actual specimens still survive. The editors have taken care to ensure both philological and technological accuracy for this authoritative edition of a medieval classic, a manual of great importance to craftsmen, historians of art and science, and all who delight in the making of the beautiful.


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