While I have not been posting to this blog on early modern vision as regularly as I want, I have been busy making more woodcuts inspired by the medieval and early modern periods. While my Henry VIII woodcut attained some popularity on social media sites not long after I made it, I had yet to post it to this site. As always, some of my prints are available at my Etsy store, and some are available on shirts and other products through my Zazzle shop.
The first two woodcuts were inspired by my reading of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bringing Up the Bodies.
The next woodcut emerged from Twitter commentary on my Henry VIII print. James Chetwood (@chegchenko) suggested I make a Richard III woodcut with the caption “III Behaviour.” I loved the idea and took him up on it.
I couldn’t leave Elizabeth I out of the mix.
But I didn’t stop with monarchs and figures that feature in Mantel’s novels, I also made a few woodcut prints that are more generally related to the medieval and early modern periods.
Apparently, my hubris knows no bounds since I tried my hand at copying several details by Albrecht Dürer. My first attempt was just okay, but I was satisfied with my attempt to copy the master.
My second attempt to copy Albrecht Dürer went a little better as I copied the melancholic face from his Melencolia I (Melancholia I).
I also tried my hand at copying a detail from Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (Nascita di Venere). I worked on this one primarily as a study in ways to woodcut hair.
Although not as detailed as the Dürer or the Botticelli copies, I have been doing some John Dee and Rosicrucian reading recently, and decided I needed to have a woodcut copy of Dee’s Monas Hierogyphica on my wall.
But I also did not leave behind my literary interests. While I’m proud of how my woodcut talents are developing, you might answer, along with Chaucer’s Harry Bailey that they are “nat worth a toord.”
Thanks for looking! As always, if a print or shirt of one of my woodcuts isn’t currently available, let me know in an email or a comment and I will post them as soon as possible.
…And I promise to return to early modern vision posts soon!
Each of these prints now has its own page at Shaping Woodcuts, with process photos and where to buy it: Like a Virgin (Elizabeth I) · Wylde for to Hold (Anne Boleyn) · Cardinal Wolsey for Pope · Kalodaemon, after Botticelli · Plague Doctor: Et in Arcadia Ego · Monas Hieroglyphica (John Dee) · Mad Call I It, after Dürer · Nat Worth a Toord (Chaucer) · We’re All Mad Here, after Dürer · Richard III: Ill Behaviour · Thomas More Bitches, More Problems · HVIIIers Gonna HVIII.
Where Cited
This essay has shaped the following works.
- “HVIIIers gonna HVIII via @senseshaper.” History Mine, 2014. Reposts the HVIII woodcut and links to senseshaper.com. Read at histmine.wordpress.com
Here endeth this leaf of Shaping Sense, called HVIIIers Gonna HVIII: Henry VIII and Other Senseshaper Woodcuts Inspired by the Medieval and Early Modern Periods. Imprinted by Senseshaper Press at senseshaper.com, firſt ſet forth the twentieth day of February, 2015. Free to read, ſhare and cite under CC BY‑NC 4.0. Finis.
Cite as
Fisher,
Zachary [Senseshaper].
“HVIIIers Gonna HVIII: Henry VIII and Other Senseshaper Woodcuts Inspired by the Medieval and Early Modern Periods.”
Shaping Sense,
20 Feb. 2015,
senseshaper.com/hviiiers-gonna-hviii-henry-viii-and-other-senseshaper-woodcuts-inspired-by-the-medieval-and-early-modern-periods.
Short form: Senseshaper, “HVIIIers Gonna HVIII.”