Illuminating Manuscripts

There have been many artists through the 1400’s and 1500’s that did illuminating manuscripts. These artists have made beautiful manuscripts for Bibles and other books for people to read and awe over the beautiful art around the lettering. Men and women worked with manuscripts for many years. Now in the twentieth century, contemporary artists use the old traditional calligraphy to create manuscripts but with a kick into the art of their own. The artist I have picked is Cari Ferraro. She uses the traditional calligraphy with the twentieth century technologies. She has made greeting cards, wedding invitations, prints, books, and art. She has found out by doing manuscripts that it would be hard to sell her products if it is one of a kind, so she has decided to use the technology to create more. She uses Photoshop and an Epson printer to create copies to sell more to not just the higher customers, but to other customers who can appreciate and afford her work. A lot of her work is colorful like watercolors, but she does have some that is the traditional work from the 14^th and 15^th century. The work I am going to talk about is Fra Giovanni's "Letter to a Friend".  This piece is in the traditional setting with beautiful art on the side. She used gouache, watercolor, walnut ink and gold leaf on this print. She made this in 1994, but she used a letter that was made in 1513. The letter is about a friend talking to another and how he appreciates their friendship. This is what the letter says: I salute you. I am your friend and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not got. But there is much, very much, that while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instance. Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take joy! Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty . . . that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it, that is all! . . . And so I greet you, with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away. With Cari Ferraro’s work, she makes wonderful work! I think it is amazing that there is an artist that still work with this traditional setting and makes it their own in this century.