Transcript
Book 1, Prologue, Pages 11 and 12
The spread’s background is all black. A few panels illuminate the darkness. The first image we see is a king finding the prophets Khizr and Ilyas at the Fountain of Immortality in the Land of Darkness. Then we follow a trail of flames which end at a lantern, followed by a hand reaching out from the darkness, inviting us to take it.
Author’s Voice:
Over and over,
it was he
who travelled in search
of the water of life –
whom I shall bring to life
once more.
The next page transports us to another time and place. We’re at a nun’s
workstation, littered with brushes and mussel shell paint palettes and
an inked drawing of the king riding on top of two griffins. She begins
her work, first licking the ends of her paintbrush into a fine point,
then, dipping it in blue pigment made by crushed lapis lazuli, she
paints.
Author’s Voice:
Come near, my friends.
And listen.
Prologue 011-012
Footnotes:
Left page of Alexander discovering the Water of Life in the Land of Darkness, with the prophets Khidr and Ilyas – LACMA, M.73.5.590
This extremely specific pinterest board on medieval paintbrushes and workspaces
Another artist gave a go at making their own medieval brushes
Materials: Making a Medieval Manuscript, from an exhibition by Vanderblit University
Skull with lapis lazuli in their teeth is discovered to be a female scribe
“One thousand years ago, a woman in a convent in northern Germany licked her paintbrush to draw the bristles into a fine point, and some of the pigment sealed into the plaque on her teeth. Now, archaeologists have discovered that the color came from lapis lazuli, a blue stone from half a world away. The finding suggests this anonymous middle-aged woman was likely a skilled painter tasked with creating high-quality illuminated manuscripts of religious texts—the first time a medieval artist has been identified from their skeleton alone, and further evidence that women copied and painted books in medieval Europe.”
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