#lothair

[dt75artblog]

more traditional works, including a lothair and a gumerich

[aylameridiandrawsstuff]

Three pages + a little extra bit of a little Prelude: The Birth of Lothair

(the lion at the bottom of the illumination on the first page is not sleeping)

This comic is actually set in the same world as my previous short comic, The Fool in the Desert, in which Lothair (all grown up) makes a cameo!

[mxacefoolish-writer]

Charlemagne when I catch you Charlemagne.

Even though you have been dead for a long time, I wish an explosive, sudden Attack of diarrhea on you, Lothair, Leo III and even Ludwig II.

I FUCKING HATE YOU ALL LIFE DOESNT REVOLVE AROUND WAR

BACK OFFFFF

amen

[medieval-elephants]

Golden oldie A little golden elephant hangs out in the corner of the table of contents for the gospel of St Mark in the Lothair Gospels, made between 849 and 851 for Lothair I, Charlemagne's grandson. This manuscript is extraordinary in many ways-- there's lots of expensive purple and gold, a portrait of Lothair himself, the works-- but one of the most interesting features is this tiny elephant, because it is recognizably an elephant. (It can be contrasted with some other attempts at drawing "elephants" from Northern Europe on this blog.) So why did these artists get it right?

Well, people were still alive in the Frankish realms who had actually seen an elephant! In the early 800s, the Abbaids caliph Harun al-Rashid sent Lothair's grandfather, Charlemagne, an elephant called Abul Abbas. Charlemagne had allied with the Abbasids (based in Baghdad) against the Umayyads (based in the Iberian peninsula), who were the rival power along Charlemagne's southern border and who were the descendants of the dynasty the Abbasids had overthrown in order to claim power. You can read more about this in Sam Ottewill-Soulsby's new book, The Emperor and the Elephant. Side note: these Carolingian illuminators were into pink and blue 1000 years before Taylor Swift entered her Lover era.

Materials: Parchment, pigments, gold, ink Origin: Abbey of St Martin, Tours (overseen by Sigilaus for Lothair I) Date: 849-851 Now Paris, BnF latin 266, f. 74r

[teasidesketches]

Hello yes I have finally drawn a picture that isn’t a comic page, it’s a miracle!

[oupacademic]

The world is devoted to physical science, because it believes these discoveries will increase its capacity of luxury and self-indulgence. But the pursuit of science leads only to the insoluble.

Benjamin Disraeli discusses the paradoxical pursuit of scientific truth in Lothair, Chapter XVII.

[dt75artblog]

Lothair's dress

[dt75artblog]

i heave this onto the table with a loud thud