IMELDA ALMQVIST ART: JOURNEYS TO OTHER WORLDS, INNER WORLDS AND AROUND THE WORLD IN PAINTINGS!
Bible, Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge, Hildegard von Bingen, Medieval Manuscripts, Mappa Mundis, Noah's Ark, Apogrypha, Tower of Babel, Garden of Eden, Adam & Eve, River Of Life, Death, Mortality, Sin, Evil, Jesus Christ, Lux Fiat, Visions, Visionary, Mystic, Prophetess, Medieval Abbess, Liber Scivias, Watering Human Beings, John Ruskins, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Macclesfield Psalter, Biblical Canticles, Litany of Saints, Office of the Dead, Tree of Carnal Knowledge
BIBLICAL
BIBLE
THE TREE OF LIFE & THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE
HILDEGARD VON BINGEN
MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS
MAPPA MUNDIS (SOLD)
BIBLE SERIES
NOAH'S ARK (80 x 100 cm) £495
The Bible Series was not conceived of as a series as such. Over a period of time I realised I had painted a number of seperate paintings based on biblical stories. The starting point was the Mappa Mundis (or Map of the World, a medieval concept. It doesn't show a map as we understand it, but it maps out stories from the Old Testament). Another painting I thought of as a 'one off' at the time was 'The Tree of Life'. In 2005 it got its companion painting: 'The Tree of Knowledge'.
The 'Tree of Life' asking for a companion as it were, lead to my reading the book of Genesis afresh. This in turn led to reading a lot of other books, see Apogrypha and 'connections crackling all over the place'.
THE TOWER OF BABEL (80 x 100 cm) £485
Other stories from the Bible that have appeared in my work are Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel.
THE TREE OF LIFE &
THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD & EVIL
THE TREE OF LIFE 2000 ( NOT FOR SALE)
Adam and Eve started off living in paradise, the Garden of Eden. They could eat freely from all trees, except two planted right in the middle of Eden. Those were The Tree of Life and The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE (80 X 100 cm) £450
It seems that God wished to test the human race. He set Adam and Eve a test of obedience by telling them not to eat the fruit of The Tree of Knowledge. However, the Serpent tempted Eve, who tempted Adam in turn. They ate of the forbidden fruit and were cast out of Eden. So God had two rebels on his hands!
THE LABOURS OF EVE (80 x 100 cm) £525
The interesting thing is that God experienced rebellion in Heaven too. Some angels turned against him and were cast out. They became demons and the Devil their chief.
THE TREE OF LIFE, THE RIVER OF LIFE
(80 x 100 cm) £499
As it happened, death entered the world. Adam and Eve did not die instantly (Adam lived for over 900 years!) but they were now mortal souls. They had to face death one day. And that holds true for every human being today. We all know that we too will die. We don't know the day or the circumstances, but death is the one certainty all human beings share.
Not only the concept 'death' entered the world. The concept 'sin' crept in too. Adam and Eve suddenly realised they were naked in the eyes of God. They put fig leaves on at first, later on clothing. God told Eve that their destiny was motherhood, but childbirth is destined to be painful and dangerous. From now on they lived in the world as we know it, a world where death and evil exist.
God didn't give up on the human race altogether. He offered a way out in the form of his son Jesus Christ. But that is a different story!
FIAT LUX (80 x 100 cm) £525
(And There Was Light...)
HILDEGARD OF BINGEN
I often listen to music composed by Hildegard of Bingen while painting.
SYMMETRY (80 x 100 cm) £485
Hildegard of Bingen was born into a noble family in 1098. At the age of eight her family gave her into the care of a religious noblewoman. She took Hildegard with her to become a recluse at the Disibodenberg monastery which later became a convent. Hildegard took religious vows and was elected abbess of the convent in 1136. She had been experiencing visions she had started to write about. She came to be regarded as a mystic and prophetess and thus came to be known as 'The Sibyl of the Rhine'. She even undertook preaching tours throughout Germany, something almost unheard of for a medieval abbess. She died in 1179. Her feast day is September 17th.
LIBER SCIVIAS (80 x 100 cm) £495
Painting inspired by the writings and drawings of Hildegard of Bingen
This is Hildegard on the Fall from paradise and The Tree of Knowledge:
'...For when God gave great knowledge to the human being, the human being elevated himself in his soul and turned away from God. God so regarded the human being that he would perfect all his works in him. But the old deceiver tricked human beings and infected them with the crime of disobedience, by the delight of an unseasonable wind, so they sought for more than they should have.
Ach! Weh! Then all the elements were folded in the alternation of light and darkness, as also was humanity through the transgression of God's commands. But God watered certain human beings so that humanity would not become a complete mockery. So Abel was good, though Cain was a murderer. And many saw God's mysteries in the light, though others committed many sins, until that time came when the word of God shone out, as is said: 'Thou are fairer than the children of men'. Then the sun of justice came forth and shone on human beings in their good works, both in faith and action, as the dawn first came forth and the other hours of the day follow on until it is night...'
I love this! It was written a 1000 years ago (!) and it's still spot on. Human beings still 'seek for more than they should have'. Possibly on a larger scale than ever, thanks to the (deadly) combination of consumerism, telecommunications and technological advances. The gap between the rich and poor is growing as I write this.
Yet Hildegard also talks about God 'watering certain human beings' so there are good, even outstanding human beings, not just compensating for some of the evil committed by human beings, but as an example to all of us, what human beings can rightfully be. I love the image of God going out with his watering can...
GOD WATERING HUMAN BEINGS (3D Mask) £75
MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS
DRAGON'S BLOOD (80 x 100 cm) £595
(a term used in the pharmacy)
The starting point for this painting was a tiny creature found in the margin of a medieval manuscript. I decided to give him 'a new life and companions' on a large canvass!
In 2005 my husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary by travelling to Cambridge to see a marvellous exhibition of illuminated medieval manuscripts at the Fitzwilliam Museum. I read about it in the Culture section of the Sunday Times. (I didn't note the date, unfortunately). The article opens by recounting how John Ruskins, the pre-eminent Victorian Art Critic, once wrote in his diary that he had (horror of horrors!) spent the evening cutting up a medieval missal. To us this is sacrilege. And yet this man was an expert and medieval enthusiast! He destroyed a possibly (probably) priceless medieval book by cutting out the illuminations and chucking the rest. However, in his day people did this sort of thing all the time. Fortunately the attitude to national and global treasures has changed in the century that has passed. Cambridge now holds the most distinguished collection outside the Vatican. Nowadays these manuscripts are locked away in a bomb-proof safe. They can only be viewed by low level lighting at an exhibition like this.
For about ten centuries illuminated manuscripts were a dominant art medium. They were powerful symbols of wealth and status and the main repository of learning and devotion. They preserved the texts of classical Antiquity and committed to paper medieval history and literature as well as the Bible.
They were made by hand in Europe during the whole of the Middle Ages, for 900 years, from the dying days of the Roman Empire up to the High Renaissance.
The Middle Ages gave us 'the book' as we know it today. In the course of the 4th century AD the papyrus scroll of ancient texts was replaced by the codex: a volume written on a more durable material such as animal skin or parchment. A volume bound between two covers turned out to be much easier to use than a scroll. The introduction of the printed book allowed the rapid spread of all ideas to educated people (like television and telecommunications revolutionised our times) and it hastened the onwards march of literacy and education for all.
Medieval books display a bewildering array of scripts, but ultimately all derive from the handwriting of the late Roman world. Most manuscripts were written before they were decorated. The scribe would leave the faint suggestion of a letter in an empty space left for an illustration. The artist would take things from there. He would apply gold before adding other colours. Ground pigments were tempered with a binding medium (such as strained egg-white) to make paints.
CELEBRATING COINCIDENCE! (80 X 100 cm) £495
(painting inspired by an illustration in a medieval manuscript)
To Medieval scribes and artists self-expression or fame were not important. They took on a commission and completed it exactly as instructed. Medieval people worked during the hours of daylight and the passing of time was marked by the local monastery bell. The rhythm of the seasons and the pattern of the Christian festivals determined everyday life for most medieval people.
In the earliest days monasteries were sanctuaries of ascetism. With the arrival of St Augustine and the conversion of the British Isles to Christianity, they gradually became like colleges or training grounds for evangelists ready to spread the word of God.
By the 12th century most English monasteries would have had libraries. They would have had at least one Bible, possibly more. There would have been service books too, from psalters to books of music. Psalters were popular for private worship. The most remarkable English illuminated psalter to be discovered in living memory is the Macclesfied Psalter from East Anglia.
A psalter is a book of prayer. It lists the most important feasts of Christ, the Virgin and the saints for each month. There is a prayer of God's protection for the person reciting the psalms from this book. There are the 150 psalms, the biblical Canticles, the litany of saints, short prayers and the Office of the Dead. It closes with the confession prayer (an expression of penance and hope for forgiveness). Throughout the medieval period, the psalms were the central texts of liturgical and devotional practice. Psalters were among the most frequently and sumptuously illustrated illuminated manuscripts.
East Anglian manuscripts combine traditional devotional images with closely observed nature and charming glimpses of everyday life with bold creatures of the wildest imagination.
THE MUSIC OF A MEDIEVAL MOUSE!(SOLD)
The Macclesfield Psalter shows marginal humour and uninhabited fantasy. Hybrid creatures merge human and animal shapes, sometimes into nightmarish visions. An ape doctor tricks a bear patients with a mock diagnosis. A man wields a sword against a snail. Rabbits play an organ and ride the hounds that are supposed to hunt them. And so forth! There are animals and humans baring their bottoms or examining each other's bottoms. To our modern eyes these images seem out of place in a book of prayer (to put it mildly!) One has to remember that some of the figures in the margins illustrate or emphasize points made in the text. But also laughter, like today, was part of everyday life in the Middle Ages. Unlike today, laughter was at the heart of religious experience, 'embracing sinners and saints alike'. In the Middle Ages laughter could wage war on evil. It could also defeat boredom and distraction and keep people alert through the long hours of worship or private reading.
THE TREE OF CARNAL KNOWLEDGE (80 x 100 cm) £495
(The 'Tree of Carnal Knowledge' doesn't exist! I made it up inspired by so called grotesque figures in the margins of Medieval manuscripts. Having said that, people - politician in particular - have lost their jobs while 'chasing their own bottoms'!)
My husband and I saw the Macclesfied Psalter on our visit to Cambridge. For me the most striking experience was that many of the images made us laugh aloud, or wonder what happened next. (When a rabbit challenges a hound to a duel). The centuries drop away and there is the instant connection with someone who made these pictures a very long time ago. I find that an amazing example of how images can transcend language or trends and be 'fresh and funny' nearly a thousand years after they were painted. The rabbit lost the duel, by then way. The next page shows his fellow rabbits as pall-bearers at his funeral... What was he thinking of, challenging a hound?!
AS ONE (80 x 100 cm) £525
Imelda Almqvist, 2006
(Last updated August 2010)
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Bible, Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge, Hildegard von Bingen, Medieval Manuscripts, Mappa Mundis, Noah's Ark, Apogrypha, Tower of Babel, Garden of Eden, Adam & Eve, River Of Life, Death, Mortality, Sin, Evil, Jesus Christ, Lux Fiat, Visions, Visionary, Mystic, Prophetess, Medieval Abbess, Liber Scivias, Watering Human Beings, John Ruskins, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Macclesfield Psalter, Biblical Canticles, Litany of Saints, Office of the Dead, Tree of Carnal Knowledge
IMELDA ALMQVIST ART: JOURNEYS TO OTHER WORLDS, INNER WORLDS AND AROUND THE WORLD IN PAINTINGS!
