Author: Ellie Miller

The Très Riches Heures we discussed this week intrigued me because of the many cultural clues it offers. “January ~ February” shows the nobles feasting and celebrating, while the peasants are out in the cold, laboring. Upon closer inspection, significant differences become even clearer. Take the animals in the images, for example. The right hand bottom corner of the image of the nobles shows a well-fed dog, perhaps getting affection or even food from an owner. Meanwhile, the mule at the top of the image of the peasants is walking uphill in the snow, carrying a heavy load. It is interesting how the animals themselves take on the status and activities of the people around them, demonstrating the clear-cut separation between the two classes. The concept of clothing also fascinates me. We see a lot of blue being worn in these depictions, yet how they are worn makes an important statement. While the image on the left shows wealthy nobles in long, flattering, rich blue outfits, the image on the right attempts to mock the peasants, who wear the same colors but appear to be slightly exposing themselves or wearing clothing that doesn’t fit properly. I find the Très Riches Heures extremely informative about what types of separation occurred in the 1400s.

A theme I have noticed over the past week and a half is how art constantly transforms other things. Banksy’s maid graffiti was probably my favorite image we discussed in class because the artist took the concept of graffiti to the next level. Not only did he paint something where he wasn’t supposed to, he turned the wall into something else entirely. I saw this as almost rebellious, proving that the artist could not only paint wherever he wanted to, but also had the power to turn a brick wall into an easily liftable piece of cloth.

Illuminated manuscripts also seem rebellious in a really magical way. They broke the rules by coloring outside the lines and changing how text was presented. Things like calendars and religious scripts began to take on the appearance of fun, colorful story books.

It was extremely interesting to read about how mediums for expression transformed over time. In the film The Secret of Kells, many of the surfaces we read about appeared. For example, Brendan used paper, parchment, and stone. In addition, he used chalk, feathers, and berries to illustrate with. I loved, loved, loved the animation in this movie. In many scenes, certain characters or objects glowed, and it echoed the radiant gold in many illuminated manuscripts.