- 3986 Cedar Hill Cross Road
Victoria, BC V8P 2N7 - 250 744 1761
Maidie Hilmo
University of Victoria, English, Adjunct
- Manuscripts (Medieval Studies), Chaucer, Manuscripts and Early Printed Books, Medieval illuminated manuscripts, Middle English literature and culture, Old English Poetry, and 31 moreAnglo-Saxon literature and culture, Anglo-Saxon Studies, Anglo-Saxon Sculpture, Langland, Medieval Women, Medieval religious women, Medieval Art, Canadian Literature, Canadian art, Canadian Art History, Canadian artists, Contemporary Canadian Poetry, Canadian Contemporary Art, Abstract Art, Abstract Expressionism, History of Religion (Medieval Studies), Popular Culture and Religious Studies, Late Medieval Religion, Monasticism and Devotion, Middle Ages, Modern Art, Medieval Studies, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain-poet, Pearl Poet, Vernacular, Word and Image Studies, Early Medieval Studies, Art History, Contemporary Art, Humanities Computing (Digital Humanities), and Paleographyedit
Research Interests: Aesthetics, Visual Studies, Portraits, Semantics, Medieval Studies, and 15 moreIllustration, Audience and Reception Studies, Medieval Women, Text And Image, Medieval Art, Medieval illuminated manuscripts, Theory of ornament, History of Ornament, Manuscript Illumination, Manuscript studies, codicology, palaeography, medieval paper, Chaucer, circulation of texts and books, history of the book, electronic editing and digital humanities, Book Illustration, Artifice, The canterbury tales, The Wife of Bath, and Ellesmere Manuscript
This paper furthers my argument that the scribe was also the artist of the underdrawings of the miniatures in the Pearl-Gawain manuscript and includes a re-assessment of the role of the colorist/s. Previously the 12 miniatures framing... more
This paper furthers my argument that the scribe was also the artist of the underdrawings of the miniatures in the Pearl-Gawain manuscript and includes a re-assessment of the role of the colorist/s. Previously the 12 miniatures framing Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in London, MS Cotton Nero A.x (art. 3), the only version of these poems extant, were largely dismissed. The miniatures do not convert the texts pictorially; rather, they place the poems within a larger icongraphic framework individually and as a whole. It is true that the painted layers, often unevenly applied, obscure many important details that are thematically significant, as shown in scientifically enhanced images that help to recover some of the outlines of the underdrawings. Taking into account the analysis of the pigments used, a closer look at the role of the colorists (likely more than one, judging from the overlays and differing levels of skills) it appears that the painted layers sometimes support the interpretations of the scribe-artist: at other times they appear to offer competing readings. The result is that the miniatures provide multilayered visual readings that interconnect and link motifs by repetition and contrast to unify the poems at various levels for engaged audiences. This is exemplified by a close look at the seascapes, landscapes, and courtly settings, as well as at preaching scenes and related sacramental issues, along with the presentation and role of women, all reconceptualized in line and color.
[The first part of my detailed request for a scientific analysis of the visual elements, including the illustrations and the decorated letters (e.g., the chemistry of the pigments and inks)” appears as an Appendix. This led to Paul Garside’s “Analysis of Pigments found in Cotton Nero A.x”; see the Appendix to “Did the Scribe Draw the Miniatures in British Library, MS Cotton Nero A.x (The Pearl-Gawain Manuscript),” JEBS 20 (2017), 127-31.]
[The first part of my detailed request for a scientific analysis of the visual elements, including the illustrations and the decorated letters (e.g., the chemistry of the pigments and inks)” appears as an Appendix. This led to Paul Garside’s “Analysis of Pigments found in Cotton Nero A.x”; see the Appendix to “Did the Scribe Draw the Miniatures in British Library, MS Cotton Nero A.x (The Pearl-Gawain Manuscript),” JEBS 20 (2017), 127-31.]
Research Interests: English Literature, Women's Studies, Medieval History, Word and Image Studies, Medieval English Literature, and 15 moreHistory of Religion (Medieval Studies), Medieval Art, Manuscripts (Medieval Studies), Medieval illuminated manuscripts, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Color, Pearl, Patience, Manuscript studies, codicology, palaeography, medieval paper, Chaucer, circulation of texts and books, history of the book, electronic editing and digital humanities, Medieval Art, Illuminated Manuscripts, Medieval History, Medieval scribes, Medieval Artists, Medieval Mansucripts, Pearl-Gawain manuscript (Cotton Nero A.x), and scientific analysis of pigments
From the introduction: New scientific analyses of the pigments and images, fresh paleographic evidence, and the resultant iconographic and thematic significance of what has been uncovered, strongly suggest that the scribe of the... more
From the introduction: New scientific analyses of the pigments and images, fresh paleographic evidence, and the resultant iconographic and thematic significance of what has been uncovered, strongly suggest that the scribe of the Pearl-Gawain manuscript, British Library, MS Cotton Nero A.x (art.3) and the person who made the underdrawings of the miniatures (as distinct from their coloring) could have been one and the same person. The implications of the new scientific data, which Paul Garside, the Conservation Scientist at the British Library, provided in answer to my queries regarding the pigments, will be examined here. His "Analysis of Pigments found in Cotton Nero A.x" is available in my Appendix (pages 127-31). One of the major discoveries is that the ink of the underdrawings and the text, as I had anticipated, is the same. Further, in the scientifically enhanced images, it is now possible to see how the added paint of the miniatures obscured visual information not previously apprehended. Working independently and simultaneously, paleographer Jane Roberts has also asked, " What if the drawings were made by the scribe? " Her research corroborates the scientific evidence. In addition to this new scientific and paleographic information, my study considers how some of the missed or misconstrued details subsequently obscured by paint are important in extending the iconographic and interpretive range of the miniatures and, reflexively, of the poems—all supporting the likelihood that the scribe was also the thoughtful draftsperson of the underdrawings.
Research Interests: Medieval Literature, Medieval Studies, Illustration, Medieval Art, Manuscripts (Medieval Studies), and 13 moreMedieval illuminated manuscripts, Digital Image Processing, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Color in Art and Science, Pearl, Color research, Color in architecture, Color and culture, Patience, Gawain, Technical Art History, Scientific Analysis, Medieval scribes, scribe as artist, and Cleaness
The function of images in the major illustrated English poetic works from the Anglo-Saxon period to the early fifteenth century is the primary concern of this book. Hilmo argues that the illustrations have not been sufficiently understood... more
The function of images in the major illustrated English poetic works from the Anglo-Saxon period to the early fifteenth century is the primary concern of this book. Hilmo argues that the illustrations have not been sufficiently understood because modern judgments about their artistic merit and fidelity to the literary texts have got in the way of a historical understanding of their function. The author here proves that artists took their work seriously because images represented an invisible order of reality, that they were familiar with the vernacular poems, and that they were innovative in adapting existing iconographies to guide the ethical reading process of their audience. To provide a theoretical basis for the understanding of early monuments, artefacts, and texts, she examines patristic opinions on imagemaking, supported by the most authoritative modern sources. Fresh emphasis is given to the iconic nature of medieval images from the time of the iconoclastic debates of the 8th and 9th centuries to the renewed anxiety of image-making at the time of the Lollard attacks on images. She offers an important revision of the reading of the Ruthwell Cross, which changes radically the interpretation of the Cross as a whole. Among the manuscripts examined here are the Caedmon, Auchinleck, Vernon, and Pearl manuscripts. Hilmo's thesis is not confined to overtly religious texts and images, but deals also with historical writing, such as Layamon's Brut, and with poetry designed ostensibly for entertainment, such as the Canterbury Tales. This study convincingly demonstrates how the visual and the verbal interactively manifest the real "text" of each illustrated literary work. The artistic elements place vernacular works within a larger iconographic framework in which human composition is seen to relate to the activities of the divine Author and Artificer.Whether iconic or anti-iconic in stance, images, by their nature, were a potent means of influencing the way an English author's words, accessible in the vernacular, were thought about and understood within the context of the theology of the Incarnation that informed them and governed their aesthetic of spiritual function. This is the first study to cover the range of illustrated English poems from the Anglo-Saxon period to the early 15th century.
Research Interests: Art History, Word and Image Studies, Iconoclasm, Langland, Old English Poetry, and 15 moreMedieval illuminated manuscripts, Geoffrey Chaucer, Medieval literature, art, and spirituality, Auchinleck manuscript, Depictions of Women in Religious Medieval Art, Medieval scribes, Crosses in Christian Art, Old and Middle English Literature (Especially Chaucer), Middle English Pearl, Interactions Between Medieval Christians and Muslims, history of art and Anglo-Saxon literature, Medieval Art Theory, Junius Manuscript, English medieval literature and art, and Anglo-Saxon scuplture
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Research Interests: Visual Literacy, Medieval English Literature, Iconoclasm, Text And Image, Medieval Art, and 13 moreManuscripts (Medieval Studies), Early Medieval Art, Insular Art, Anglo-Saxon Art, Medieval Art History, Pictorial Narrative, John of Damascus, Mary Magdalene, Leviathan, Ruthwell Cross, Medieval Sculpture, Psalm 90, and Two Natures of Christ
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This is chapter 4 of Medieval Images, Icons, and Illustrated English Literary Texts: From the Ruthwell Cross to the Ellesmere Chaucer.
Research Interests: Medieval Studies, Iconoclasm, Early Medieval History, Medieval Art, Medieval illuminated manuscripts, and 15 moreMiracles, Pagan/Christian Relations in the Early Middle Ages, Middle English Romances, Middle Ages, Medieval literature, art, and spirituality, Paganism and Christianism, Auchinleck manuscript, Richard II, Old and Middle English literature, Depictions of Women in Religious Medieval Art, Medieval scribes, Vernon Manuscript, Interactions Between Medieval Christians and Muslims, Medieval Art Theory, and Caligula Manuscript
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Research Interests: Medieval Studies, Visual Literacy, Audience and Reception Studies, Medieval Art, Medieval illuminated manuscripts, and 8 moreTheory of ornament, Marginalia, Medieval pilgrimage, The canterbury tales, The Wife of Bath, Decorated Letter Forms and Illustration In Medieval Music Manuscripts, Medieval Aristocratic Women, and Paradise garden
From the introduction: New scientific analyses of the pigments and images, fresh paleographic evidence, and the resultant iconographic and thematic significance of what has been uncovered, strongly suggest that the scribe of the... more
From the introduction: New scientific analyses of the pigments and images, fresh paleographic evidence, and the resultant iconographic and thematic significance of what has been uncovered, strongly suggest that the scribe of the Pearl-Gawain manuscript, British Library, MS Cotton Nero A.x (art.3) and the person who made the underdrawings of the miniatures (as distinct from their coloring) could have been one and the same person. The implications of the new scientific data, which Paul Garside, the Conservation Scientist at the British Library, provided in answer to my queries regarding the pigments, will be examined here. His "Analysis of Pigments found in Cotton Nero A.x" is available in my Appendix (pages 127-31). One of the major discoveries is that the ink of the underdrawings and the text, as I had anticipated, is the same. Further, in the scientifically enhanced images, it is now possible to see how the added paint of the miniatures obscured visual information not previously apprehended. Working independently and simultaneously, paleographer Jane Roberts has also asked, " What if the drawings were made by the scribe? " Her research corroborates the scientific evidence. In addition to this new scientific and paleographic information, my study considers how some of the missed or misconstrued details subsequently obscured by paint are important in extending the iconographic and interpretive range of the miniatures and, reflexively, of the poems—all supporting the likelihood that the scribe was also the thoughtful draftsperson of the underdrawings.
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The Ellesmere Manuscript of Canterbury Tales is not only one of the earliest manuscripts of Chaucer's work, but it is also the most luxurious. It provides a meaningful and integrated visual program of all its elements, including the... more
The Ellesmere Manuscript of Canterbury Tales is not only one of the earliest manuscripts of Chaucer's work, but it is also the most luxurious. It provides a meaningful and integrated visual program of all its elements, including the text, the marginal illustrations of the pilgrims, and the decorated borders.
(Included here is a short selection featuring how the decoration and layout of Dorigen's suicide speech in Ellesmere dramatically impacts the audience's reading experience.)
For the Table of Contents for Chaucer: Visual Approaches see: http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-07480-1.html
(Included here is a short selection featuring how the decoration and layout of Dorigen's suicide speech in Ellesmere dramatically impacts the audience's reading experience.)
For the Table of Contents for Chaucer: Visual Approaches see: http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-07480-1.html
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For color images of the Prioress and the Second Nun in the Ellesmere Manuscript, see: http://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/dsheh/heh_brf?CallNumber=EL+26+C+9&Description=&page=1 For a color image of the Saint Cecilia Altarpiece, see:... more
For color images of the Prioress and the Second Nun in the Ellesmere Manuscript, see: http://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/dsheh/heh_brf?CallNumber=EL+26+C+9&Description=&page=1
For a color image of the Saint Cecilia Altarpiece, see: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/master/cecilia/index.html
For a color image of the Saint Cecilia Altarpiece, see: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/master/cecilia/index.html
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See also Kathryn Kerby-Fulton
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Note: For colour images of the Ellesmere manuscript (San Marino, Calif., Huntington Library, MS Ellesmere 26 C9) see online at http://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/dsheh/heh_brf?CallNumber=EL+26+C+9&Description=&page=
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For colour images from the Ellesmere MS see: http://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/dsheh/heh_brf?Description=&CallNumber=EL+26+C+9
For colour images from Caxton's 1st edition see: http://www.bl.uk/treasures/caxton/homepage.html
For colour images from Caxton's 1st edition see: http://www.bl.uk/treasures/caxton/homepage.html
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Research Interests: Mathematics, Art History, Theology, Transcendental Philosophy, Visual metaphor, and 15 moreInfinity, Color Perception, Corporeality, Geometry, Nothingness, Diagrams, Color, Cosmos, Color Psychology and Use of Colour, Creation, Creation Out of Nothing, Knowing God, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Unknowing, and Monastic Exegesis (Literal – Spiritual – Anagogical)
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Research Interests: Art History, Cultural Heritage, Immigration Studies, German Expressionism, Canadian art, and 15 moreChinese mythology, William Blake, Visual Arts, Space, Abstract Expressionism, British Columbia and the Canadian West, Landscape paintings, Creation, Pioneer settlement, Asian Art, Mythological studies, Canadian Cultural History, Pioneers, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Flying Dutchman
This new interview with bill bissett involved a different approach. I asked him questions and he replied orally, while simultaneously writing the answers on his iPad, using his own phonetic spelling. Then, after he left Victoria, we... more
This new interview with bill bissett involved a different approach. I asked him questions and he replied orally, while simultaneously writing the answers on his iPad, using his own phonetic spelling. Then, after he left Victoria, we finished the interview by email. The result is that his answers are not only accurately recorded but also that the reader will likely experience bill's rhythms and thought processes directly while reading aloud.
(The whole interview can be downloaded from the Canadian Literature website. The Table of Contents for this volume is available at https://canlit.ca/full-issue/?issue=233). For examples of bill bissett's poetry expressing the intimate connection between colour and sound and touch, see For Kelly with Love: Poems on the Abstracts of Carle Hessay at
https://www.carlehessay.com/page/for_kelly_with_love
(The whole interview can be downloaded from the Canadian Literature website. The Table of Contents for this volume is available at https://canlit.ca/full-issue/?issue=233). For examples of bill bissett's poetry expressing the intimate connection between colour and sound and touch, see For Kelly with Love: Poems on the Abstracts of Carle Hessay at
https://www.carlehessay.com/page/for_kelly_with_love
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Presents an interview with author Bill Bissett regarding his career as a poet. When and how he started as a writer; What made him come to Vancouver, British Columbia; Manifestations of Western influence in his poems; Type of his poetry... more
Presents an interview with author Bill Bissett regarding his career
as a poet. When and how he started as a writer; What made him
come to Vancouver, British Columbia; Manifestations of Western
influence in his poems; Type of his poetry and its subject focus.
as a poet. When and how he started as a writer; What made him
come to Vancouver, British Columbia; Manifestations of Western
influence in his poems; Type of his poetry and its subject focus.
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In celebration of the life and work of Victoria, BC poet, artist, and medievalist, Kelly Parsons, fellow Canadian poets completed a project she was unable to undertake in the last months of her short life: to write on the small abstracts... more
In celebration of the life and work of Victoria, BC poet, artist, and medievalist, Kelly Parsons, fellow Canadian poets completed a project she was unable to undertake in the last months of her short life: to write on the small abstracts of BC artist, Carle Hessay. More more on Carle Hessay's art see : https://www.carlehessay.com
The power of abstract art and how it reaches the inner life of each viewer in different ways and at different levels is vividly demonstrated in this collection of poems responding to Carle Hessay's expressive abstracts. Yet, in combination, the poems by these Canadian poets also draw out those elements that ring true for who Carle Hessay was as a person and an artist. In their reach, they also define what abstract art is and why it is still relevant in the 21st century.
Maidie Hilmo's Introduction contextualizes Carle Hessay's dynamic paintings in relation to the forces and ideas that characterized abstract expressionism in the mid twentieth century.
"Remembering Kelly Parsons: Medievalist, Buddhist, and Poet" by Professor Kathryn-Kerby-Fulton gives a personal account of this important Canadian poet's dual intellectual and spiritual inspiration that is revealed in her poetry.
Poets who responded in their individual ways to Carle Hessay's exciting Canadian abstracts include Karen Ballinger, bill bissett, Dorothy Field, Patrick Friesen, Corinna Gilliland, Judith Heron, Eve Joseph, Linda Olson, Barbara Colebrook Peace, Linda Rogers, Carol Ann Sokoloff, Gray Sutherland, Leonard A. Woods, Patricia Young, Terence Young, and Gail D. Whitter.
This book is of interest to general readers and is suitable as a text for English, Creative Writing, and Art History classes.
For the entire book online, see: https://www.carlehessay.com/page/for_kelly_with_love
For highlights from the live poetry readings from the book launch, see:
https://youtu.be/cs5Hi4WDIZk
The power of abstract art and how it reaches the inner life of each viewer in different ways and at different levels is vividly demonstrated in this collection of poems responding to Carle Hessay's expressive abstracts. Yet, in combination, the poems by these Canadian poets also draw out those elements that ring true for who Carle Hessay was as a person and an artist. In their reach, they also define what abstract art is and why it is still relevant in the 21st century.
Maidie Hilmo's Introduction contextualizes Carle Hessay's dynamic paintings in relation to the forces and ideas that characterized abstract expressionism in the mid twentieth century.
"Remembering Kelly Parsons: Medievalist, Buddhist, and Poet" by Professor Kathryn-Kerby-Fulton gives a personal account of this important Canadian poet's dual intellectual and spiritual inspiration that is revealed in her poetry.
Poets who responded in their individual ways to Carle Hessay's exciting Canadian abstracts include Karen Ballinger, bill bissett, Dorothy Field, Patrick Friesen, Corinna Gilliland, Judith Heron, Eve Joseph, Linda Olson, Barbara Colebrook Peace, Linda Rogers, Carol Ann Sokoloff, Gray Sutherland, Leonard A. Woods, Patricia Young, Terence Young, and Gail D. Whitter.
This book is of interest to general readers and is suitable as a text for English, Creative Writing, and Art History classes.
For the entire book online, see: https://www.carlehessay.com/page/for_kelly_with_love
For highlights from the live poetry readings from the book launch, see:
https://youtu.be/cs5Hi4WDIZk
Research Interests: Abstract Art, Canadian Literature, Abstract Painting, Canadian poetry, 20th Canadian Art, and 22 moreAbstract Expressionism, British Columbia and the Canadian West, Canadian artists, Canadian Art History, Bill Bissett, Karen Ballinger, Dorothy Field, Patrick Friesen, Corinna Gilliland, Judith Heron, Eve Joseph, Linda Olson, Linda Rogers, Barbara Colebrook Peace, Gray Sutherland, Leonard A. Woods, Patricia Young, Terence Young, Kelly Parsons, Gail Whitter, Carol Ann Sokoloff, and Carle Hessay
Art historian, artist, and musician, Leonard A. Woods brings to life one of the most underrated Canadian artists of the 20th century--Carle Hessay. His paintings have rarely been made available to the public by the Hessay estate... more
Art historian, artist, and musician, Leonard A. Woods brings to life one of the most underrated Canadian artists of the 20th century--Carle Hessay. His paintings have rarely been made available to the public by the Hessay estate until recently. This important book began the process of introducing his oeuvre by way of a selection made personally by Leonard Woods. He spent considerable time with the original paintings and the result is this series of meditations that they inspired. Carle Hessay's experiences during the turbulent events of the first half of the twentieth century imbue each painting with a depth and power immediately recognizable as a trademark of his accomplished style. Trained in Dresden and Paris, Hessay employed colour (he often made his own pigments) to give each work its particular emotional resonance. Scarred by his experiences in the Spanish Civil War and World War II, he sought restoration of spirit in the furthest reaches of the British Columbia wilderness during his many prospecting trips. His landscapes, whether idyllically peaceful or charged with symbolism about the devastations brought about by man, are sensitively and probingly explored by Woods. His war paintings draw on classical myths and biblical stories that cover the sweep of history and still resonate today in these seemingly apocalyptic times.
Each painting, in full colour, is faced by the commentary by Leonard A. Wood in this lavishly illustrated book now available for the first time online as a pdf file, see https://www.carlehessay.com/page/meditations_on_the_paintings_of_carle_hessay
For further images of the paintings of Carle Hessay and more information about recent exhibitions see: https://www.carlehessay.com.
Carle Hessay is also listed on Wikipedia.
Each painting, in full colour, is faced by the commentary by Leonard A. Wood in this lavishly illustrated book now available for the first time online as a pdf file, see https://www.carlehessay.com/page/meditations_on_the_paintings_of_carle_hessay
For further images of the paintings of Carle Hessay and more information about recent exhibitions see: https://www.carlehessay.com.
Carle Hessay is also listed on Wikipedia.
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MA thesis at The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC,
Canada
Canada