Illumination: PAGE FROM THE MANESISCHE LIEDERHANDSCHRIFT

This is a recreation of an illumination from the Codex Manesse, also know as the Manessische Liederhandschrift. This piece was my entry into the St. Eligius Arts & Sciences Competition of a local chapter of the SCA. I entered in the Novice level of the Paper & Ink Category. I had decided to recreate this particular image because it was very similar to  a framed print of an image from the Codex Manesse in that my parents had when I was growing up, and I always liked the style of the art. I ended up winning in two categories: the overall Novice category and the overall Paper & Ink category. 

This was very different from anything I would normally do because I was attempting to copy the original as closely as possible. The pencil and ink drawings were all done on the same paper that finished gouache painting was going to be done on. No scanning the sketch and moving things around in Photoshop. Whatever I inked was going to stay that way. Below are the pencil sketch and the ink sketch, both of which I documented before going to the next step.

Here is what the original illumination looks like:

Der Schenk von Limpburg, Codex Manesse.
Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Cod. Pal. germ. 848, Bl. 082v,
 Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift, Zürich c. 1300-1340 

I ended up framing the illumination and giving it to my father for Christmas. It's now hanging in his house with two framed prints of two other pages from the Codex Manesse.