Online Edition
January 2015
Vol. XX, No.7
Table of Contents
Adoration of the Magi (2012) by Daniel Mitsui. Ink drawing on calfskin vellum made using fine-tipped pens and calligraphers’ inks applied with brushes.
It is formatted as a recto page in an illuminated manuscript. The central image depicting the Adoration of the Magi is based on an early 16th-century panel painting by the Master of the Monogram AH.
The Magi are depicted according to their description by the Venerable Bede: Melchior is elderly, with long hair and a white beard; Caspar is young, beardless, and ruddy; and Balthazar is middle-aged, dark-skinned, and bearded. The Magi thus represent all of humanity coming to adore the Holy Infant, as they comprise the three ages of man, the descendants of the three sons of Noah, and the three continents known to medieval Christians. A small scene of the Circumcision of Christ appears in the background.
The ornament in the border includes sea shells and floral patterns based on millefleur tapestries. Vines weave through the outer border, outlining a series of roundels and quatrefoils. Two roundels show Old Testament prefigurements from the Speculum Humane Salvationis: three heroes bringing water to David from the Well of Bethlehem and the Queen of Sheba before Solomon’s Throne. In the bas-de-page is a world map.
The original drawing included personalized coats of arms and historical scenes in the borders; the roundels of Old Testament prefigurements and the spangled quatrefoils were drawn on separate pieces of vellum and edited into the print file in their places.
More of Daniel Mitsui’s work can be seen on his website: danielmitsui.com.
Table of Contents
Letter to Adoremus Members — from The Reverend Jerry J. Pokorsky —Member, Executive Committee
News and Views — Bishops Approve New Liturgical Translations at November Meeting | Cardinal Robert Sarah Appointed Prefect of CDW
Childhood Memories of Learning Chant and Praying the Divine Office — by Father Samuel F. Weber
Helen Hull Hitchcock, Obituary and Funeral
Helen Hull Hitchcock, RIP — Wife, Mother, Writer, Artist, Spy — by the Reverend Jerry J. Pokorsky
In Memoriam — by Father Joseph Fessio, SJ
Fervorino to Seminarians at the Beginning of a New School Year — by Father Douglas Martis
Readers’ Forum – January 2015 — Helen Hull Hitchcock | Communal Anointing of the Sick | More on Apps for Mass | More on Altar Servers’ Vesture | Priest’s Vestments | Communion at Nursing Homes
With Love from the Mice — by Lucy E. Carroll
Prayer in Paint: New Icon to Instruct, Inspire — by Katie Scott
The Holy Family, homage to Gerard David — reprint, Helen Hull Hitchcock
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