Monk
TITLE OF PIECE: Brother Liuthard the Younger
EDITION: One of a kind
ARTIST: Jeanne K. J. Weiland
DIMENSIONS: Monk 13 inches, seated
Base 18 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches; wall 18 inches in height
MATERIALS: Mixed media. head, arms and legs are polymer clay. The body is leather stuffed with mohair, and has a wire armature for posing. Hair is rooted lamb's wool. The monk's robe is brown wool and the sandals are leather, just as they would have been in the 13th century. The table and stool are constructed of aspen. The stone walls and floor are paper mache and acrylic mortared with real mortar. The books are handstitched with silk and bound in glove leather, and the metal filigree cover trim is gold plated. Brass, copper, and acrylic are used for the espaliered fruit tree. All accessories pictured come with the figure.
ARTIST NOTES: I am often awe-struck when I think about the literary gifts we inherited from the past. All of the early masterpieces...Plato, Socrates, Sophocles, the Bible...would have been lost for all time but for the incredible efforts of those who painstakingly copied them over and over by hand. Not only were they tediously written out, but were done so with such beauty that they are masterpieces in their own right. I often envisioned monks sitting tall and making graceful, dancelike movements...quill in hand...as they knowingly took their magnificent place in the history of art. The reality of their experience, however, is that they suffered the same ills as their contemporaries. Cold and drafty quarters, body lice and fleas, rivers of raw sewage, the plague, and other untold miseries were part of daily life. Fatigue, I would expect, was the rule. It is with gratitude to these anonymous scribes and artists that I envisioned this tired little monk. The furnishings and walls surrounding him are based on 13th century woodcuts. His clothing is constructed, in scale, from clothing recovered by archaeologists and painstakingly measured and diagramed. The volumes in which he paints are modeled after illumination styles and binding techniques known to be used in the year 1220. Even the espaliered fruit tree beyond the window is true to the monasteries; the monks, lacking growing space in their hilly retreats, were accustomed to pruning their fruit trees to "vine" up the walls of their enclosures. Please, the next time you consider the great philosophers or our religious heritage, remember the untold hours...and centuries... these folks labored to preserve this wealth for future generations.
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For Questions or Comments about the Website E-mail Charlie Weiland
For Questions or Comments about the Artwork please E-mail Jeanne Weiland
This Page updated on 5/2/98