The Angel of Death

Angel of Death

Scroll Blank

Description:

Illustration of the angel of death, inspired by a late 15th Century, German, hand-colored woodcut portraying the seven deadly sins. [1] Gouache and ink on Arches 140 pound, hot-pressed, cotton paper. Slightly smaller than the original image (15.55in by 10.87in). The scroll was made in November 2012.

Details of the original image:

German hand-coloured woodcut portraying the seven deadly sins, c.1490-1500; a winged female figure with a human upper part of the body stands with her crane’s leg on a globe; she wears a crown with peacock-feathers and is holding a chalice and a forked stick; on her wings are an ass and a wolf; Death in form of a skeleton bites into her leg; an inscription is placed above and 46 lines of verse, which explain the symbolism of the image, are to the left and right. 

Woodcut with hand-colouring made by Anonymous, Germany, 1490-1500 (c.)

The text (by David Paisey) on the label from the departmental exhibition at the BM in 2002 reads as follows:

"The Seven Deadly Sins, about 1500. Xylographic sheet (in which text as well as image are cut on the block), coloured, from the Upper Rhine Region, perhaps Basle.  Woman has been the instrument of sin in Judaeo-Christian tradition since Eve offered the apple to Adam. Here she incorporates the Seven deadly Sins of the world through complex imagery already several centuries old. Her crown indicates Pride, the chalice Gluttony, the donkey Sloth, the wolf Wrath, the bat’s wings Envy, the plunging neckline Lust, and the grasping crane’s claw Avarice.

Though the meaning of the dung-fork the woman carries and of the figure of Death gnawing her leg would have been fairly clear, the remaining symbolism of this strange and frightening image would not have been obvious, so the explanatory verse text is essential. There is no agent of salvation in the image, but the text provides not only a warning but a means of escape: ‘Do not serve the world.’"
Dodgson rather interpreted the image as a representation of "Frau Welt" and titled it in his two catalogues "Allegory of the world" ("Die Welt als Frau mit Raubvogelklaue" in Schreiber), as he thought the emblem of envy to be absent (he interpretes, according to the German inscription on line 35-6 "Vnd schwebt mitt zweyen fettich ob Das ist ir rum vnd ir lob", the bat’s wings as worldly fame and praise). Also, following the German inscription, the female figure is titled "welt"; some other attributions do not strictly correspond with the quote above: the chalice stands here for unchastity ("vnkuscheyt"), the cloth around the waist and the cranes’ leg are emblems for insecurity (or unsteadiness, cf. "vnstetikeit"), the fork for avarice ("girikeit" ?); the wolf/dog is not mentioned in the verses. Dodgson agrees with Schreiber in attributing the print to the Upper Rhine, possibly Basle, but thinks the given date "about 1500" is too late.  He further notes this piece of medieval symbolism occurs repeatedly in manuscripts and is connected with the order of St Benedict. See his note for other examples and for a comparison between the present cut and the "Seven Deadly Sins" at Zürich, Schr. No. 1862.m (in: Woodcuts of the XV Century in the British Museum, vol. II, London 1935, No. 240).
See also N. Henkel, ‘Schauen und Erinnern. Überlegungen zu Intentionalität und Appellstruktur illustrierter Einblattdrucke’ in ‘Einblattdrucke des 15. und frühen 16. Jahrhunderts’, edited by V. Honemann, S. Griese, F. Eisermann and M. Ostermann, Tübingen, 2000, pp 229ff, illustrated p.234 (erroneous credit line to the British Library). [2]

Technique:

This was an attempt to reproduce on paper, what was inscribed as a woodcut. As I am still learning the art of limning, I used paper and gouache rather than vellum and period pigments. Working from a high resolution image of the woodcut, I removed the background colors and printed out the image. The design was transferred to the paper by tracing over a light box.

I decided to make this scroll, because I liked the image and wanted to see if I could reproduce it. While no project or assignment was in mind, for this scroll, it can, certainly, be used for a Best Death competition.

Instead of making an exact copy of the original image, and colors, I used them as a guide to help me select new colors that would stand out better. I started with a light wash to all areas that required color, following up, after allowing enough time for the paint to dry, with darker shades. I applied the paint so that if the virtual light source came from the upper, left-hand corner of the page, the darkest shades would fall into the right most corners, producing shadows. The angel’s face, hands and the skeleton I left without pigment, except for a thin coat of grey, on the right-hand edges, to act as shadows. Once the shading was completely dry, I applied a line of white to the left most edges to act as a highlight.

The crown and chalice were painted with gold gouache and outlined with black ink: no high lighting or shading was used. Several layers of gold paint were used to make the two objects stand out.

The wolf, in the original image, was black and grey: I changed the color to brown to make it more recognizable as a wolf. [3] Furthermore, I painted the donkey an almost solid grey to make it more recognizable as a donkey, at least to modern eyes.

The snake protruding from the skeleton was omitted for taste as well as for personal preference. The word balloon over the skeleton was added for humor. [4]

Wytfliets World 1598

In the original image, the sphere, the angel stood upon, was a blank ball, inscribed with nothing more than "longitude" and "latitude" lines. As this reminded me of a globe, I decided to sketch a globe. I searched for a good quality, period map and ended up using one that was about 100 years older than the woodcut: "Vtrivsque Hemispherii Delineatio", from Cornelius Wytfliet’s 1597 atlas Descriptiones Ptolemicae Augmentum. I did this because I wanted a period image that would be recognized as a globe to the modern viewer. The anachronism, I feel, is justified by having a readily identified globe. I free-handed the shape of the continents onto the globe, around the angel’s claw. I used a single wash of blue for water and green for land. The poles I left uncolored.

I left off the green "lawn" in the original image, as I expect that the calligraphy, for this scroll, as well as any signatures, will require all of the space around the leg and globe.

Once the all of the paint had dried, I outlined all of the sections with black ink to make the image stand out.

[1] The British Museum Registration number: 1865,0708.92

[2] British Museum

[3] Although, to me, it looks more like a dog than the period images of wolves.

[4] I blame Lady Avelina filia Isoldae

References:

Reynolds, Caleb. Angel of Death. High resolution image can be found on Flikr: 

Seven Deadly Sin. The British Museum Website. Registration number 1865,0708.92 AN1021364. 

Wytfliet’s World Map. University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin. Image reproduced from From The Scottish Geographical Magazine Vol. XVI, No. 1, 1900.

Observations from 2015:

The moment I saw the original woodcut, I wanted to paint it (like one of my French girls). I had no thought in mind as to what it was going to be used for. I still have it in my portfolio in case a request comes forward for a scroll for a best death or an assignment for a special friend. The scroll, and the above documentation, has been entered into a few A&S competitions and has garnered plenty of nice comments.