Medieval Cartoonist. Ancientpanoply: A video made for the Museum of Cluny, and its “The Sword: Uses, Myths and Symbols” exhibit. It tries to dispel some of the beliefs that are still prevalent today about the weight and mobility of fighters in plate armor and show some of the techniques used in combat against armored opponents I’m always pleased to see videos like this. It’s as if people won’t believe unless they’re shown (and there are always some who go “ah, yes, well, in aluminium stage armour it’s easy.”)Well, the Museum Cluny video, like the Royal Armoury demo team, uses real steel armour: those two pictures at the start show the originals; the video uses reproductions because no curator will let someone take two exhibits from his museum and roll them around on flagstones. "Pretty much proof positive that the people who claim that skimpy female fantasy armor is for increased maneuverability don’t know what they’re talking about.
" They know exactly what they’re talking about. Lost and found. Ye Booke of Howrs. In the Labyrinth: Illuminated Manuscripts. I seem to be on a medieval manuscript wave length lately -- they just appear on my computer unexpectedly, and I lose a morning to them, ogling their beauty and enjoying their peculiar sense of peasant humor. There are animal tales and fairy tales, tales of revenge, tales of hunting, eating, farming, battling giants and devils, being chased and chasing wildmen and beasts, playing dice, carding wool, and rabbits jousting. Here is a wonderful example of this teaming life in the margins from the catalog of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Museum listed as the Detailed record for Royal 10 E IV, edited by Raymond of Penafort, with gloss of Bernard of Parma, titled Calendarium, Decretals of Gregory IX with glossa ordinaria (the Smithfield Decretals.)These marginal bits of art are especially inspiring right now as I have signed up to do the Sketchbook Project.
I love how these 14th century French artists created such visually compelling stories in such small spaces on the page. Mermaid. Medieval Art. Timelines.