Dürer & Prints

Book: Renaissance Art by Tom Nichols pp.98 - 99

Reading about Dürer's background and his work is really inspiring. I didn't know how much he influenced the relief printing process. The paved the way for the single-leaf print taking dominance over text. I find this really inspiring because I've started to realise that I want to get into book illustration and making these kind of full page illustrations that accompany text is what I'd love to do.

The Rise of Renaissance Print

'Dürer's Hercules is a precociously new kind of work aimed at a wide international audience. Despite the classical theme, Dürer did not seek the serve the social elite with works such as this...it was not tailor-made to suit a particular set of cultural interests. For all its pictorial qualities and its classical subject-matter, the Hercules was made to be reproduced, its small scale and ready availability anticipating a potentially broad and diverse viewing audience. It may have been among the copies of Dürer's prints that members of his family sold in the local market in Nuremberg, for example.'

'He attempted to expand the visual domain, anticipating the widening interest of a new art-loving public, both at home and abroad. It was this that lay behind his attempt to synthesise diverse artistic styles. The natural medium for such an enterprise was the reproductive print.'

'Prints were immediately smaller, cheaper, and more quickly produced than traditional works of art: based on the principle of replication, they co-existed in many places at once and were easily transportable, contradicting the fixed or site-specific qualities of, for example, large-scale altarpieces or sculptures.'

'The ease and rapidity with which prints were produced and consumed promised the visual image of a new measure of ubiquity, and made it a suitable carrier for an expanded range of meanings and ideas. In addition to the more traditional diet of stories from the Bible, or from the lives of the Virgins and saints, printmaking artists often depicted topical or 'contemporary' subjects: accurate views of famous towns, cities and monuments, for example, or images recording the appearances and dress of the people of different regions...Even if it does not have a topical subject, Dürer's Hercules has its place within this dramatic widening of the established subject-matter of visual art within print culture.'

'The reproductive print formed part of the wider communication revolution that followed the spread of the printing press across Europe in the mid-fifteenth century. The discovery of moveable type allowed for the text to be brought into a new alliance with the printed image. But when, in 1498, Dürer published an illustrated book featuring sixteen woodcuts drawn from St John's Revelation - known as the Apocalypse - he made a very significant change. Though John's text was included, the words were relegated to the back of each sheet, with pride of place given to Dürer's large and complex images on the front. The more usual priority allowed to the text in early printed books was undone, with the 'illustrations' taking on a new place of independence and authority.'

Digital Mock Up - Scolds Bridal

Based on my research and sketchbook work, I decided to try and test out using the cintiq to digitally mock up a linocut, experimenting with contours and mark making.
I've just chosen a scolds bridal image in order to see if I can experiment with drawing more in the way that I cut. That way, there's less error in the translation of the drawing to the cut. I can be more confident when carving that I'm coming out with the aesthetic I want.
It also gives me the opportunity to incorporate the mark making techniques I've been trying to develop.

At first, I tried setting a black background, turning down the opacity and rubbing out areas. But this felt really unnatural, weirdly enough, and didn't seem to work. I just ended up with a really rubbish scribbled sketch.

So after this I just tried to use the contouring to give the object form, and then rubbed away some parts of the lines. I added in background and surface texture too.
I'm not totally happy with it, because it's not that detailed or intricate. It looks pretty rough. But as an experiment, it's interesting to see the effect of the linework, and the difference in the final image compared to the solid black linos I usually make.

As I develop more on my drawing and mark making, deciding on the final designs, I'll probably use this digital process again.
Drawing in the lines before rubbing them out again is similar in a way to the scratchboard artist's techniques that I've looked at in Extended practice and brought across to CoP.
I think I'm still needing to develop on my designs a lot more before I'll be happy to start cutting finals.

Lino Print Roughs

Really rough ideas of potential prints:

I want to make sure that all of the prints work together as a cohesive set, but also have enough variation between them that they don't feel repetitive or tedious. Some of the crushing tools, for example, look quite similar, so I'll just one or two as long as they look different from each other. 

I really want the main point of interest to be in the quality of the cuts and the techniques of carving used. I definitely do want to experiment with the composition, but I'm not going to have that much to play around with as I'm mainly just focusing on clean illustrations of the objects themselves.

Contour Lines & Marks

Artists / Illustrators I've been looking at:

Tomas Shahan's woodcuts are so intricate and detailed. I love his depiction of light and dark, and his complex compositions. I want to try to emulate the form that he captures in areas of his work.

Hans Holbein is a reference that I've mentioned before, and for obvious reasons. He's created intricate, detailed work with clearly defined layers and sense of depth. He uses very few areas of solid black at all, and his use of line is really refined.

Mike from the print room put me on to Error Design, as they've got some pretty interesting hand printed work. I chose this example because of the communication of light on the hills/rocks and through the clouds in the background. Also the directional lines contouring the skulls.

Dürer, again, is an obvious one considering I've looked at his work within my dissertation. He captures an insane amount of detail in his ridiculously intricate woodcut series focusing on the Apocalypse. The directional lines are so fine, and his composition is incredible.

Michael Halbert is a scratchboard artist that I came across on Youtube. He draws all of his designs out in fineliner in intense detail on white scratchboard. Then he adds contour lines. He thickens the lines up in certain places, describing shadow or depth, and then finally he works back into it by scraping areas of the scratchboard away. He does this to sharpen lines, cut away shading, and add cross hatched highlights. He is ridiculously talented at fine pen drawings. I wish I had his talent and/or patience.

Nico Delort is another scratchboard artist, but I've chosen him because of the variation of tone and value in his work. Some of his line work is soft and subtle, and some is really sharp and aggressive. All of it describes form and texture really well. His illustrations are so striking, I absolutely love them. The variation of his mark making to describe different elements of the illustrations is what I find most inspiring.

Overall I want to practice mark making, and line drawings. I feel so out of practice having focused purely on carving flat, graphic linos for a while now.

Within my sketches I've been trying to introduce some contour lines and develop a sense of form, as well as build up some tone and vary the values. All with the use of line. It's been challenging in a way, because ordinarily I'll flatten things a lot when I draw them in order to fit a certain aesthetic when I linocut. I know that what I usually draw tends to look very different once I cut it.

At this stage I'm just trying to practice these contour lines, capturing the 3D form of something more than I usually do.

I've started by being quite free with it, like with the first Scolds Bridal sketch. This was really rough though, and it doesn't really make much sense. The lines are going in all different directions. Even if this worked as a sketch, this approach wouldn't work for linocut.

I moved on from it, trying to control the lines more to accurately describe the shape of the mask.
One of the small sketches, I based off a Holbein piece, where I noticed that he uses quite large areas of cut space with only small marks on the skulls and the foreground objects. The marks are then built up more in the background. This is great for small elements of a more detailed piece, but it wouldn't be striking or detailed enough for an A5 cut.

The Judas Chair isn't technically well drawn, (my light source is off and the line work isn't neat), but I was trying to get used to drawing in some directional lines / contour lines, and thinking about developing this to create areas of shadow etc.

I'm pretty pleased with the aesthetic of the thumbscrews. I know the structure isn't perfect but I can imagine this as a lino. It works well with the structured linework and the shading on the posts either side gives them form.

The Garrote - again, the light source isn't right but I'm just trying to get used to the way of thinking and drawing to cut. I like the way it's come out in regards to the contour lines and the sharp angles. This is another one that I can fully image as a cut plate.

I've been experimenting with line and cut some small lino tests, trying to explore the lines, textures and effects that I can achieve. Some of these I will take forward and incorporate into the final linos.

Practical Action Plan

- Made a new label OUIL601 Practical in order to identify the blog posts that relate to my practical response and find out what I'm lacking. Obviously research for essay and practical will overlap and weave in and out of each other, so it's not a means of completely separating the two. It's just a method of mine to see the direction of my practical work a little clearer, and check back at how I've blogged my thought processes and development.

- Making an intense effort to blog as I go along and ensure I'm properly communicating everything that someone needs to know in order to follow my thought process and the paths I've been taking

- Working like hell. I've designed a new time plan that means I'll be working my butt off in order to achieve everything that I want to. I wrote out a calendar to visualise exactly how much time we have left. I've tried to plan out when I will be cutting my linos, allowing a bit of time for flexibility.

- My main aim is to have my linos all cut for the 21st. I will test print them as I go, like I usually do, but will actually test print them properly, registering them and formatting them correctly after xmas. This is when I'll work on the presentation of the prints. I'm trying to plan getting stuff done early so that if I go off track, it doesn't impact me too much.

- I also want to get my essay finished just before the xmas break. I'm not sure how realistic this is as I won't have my feedback until next week. I'm hoping that it's a reasonable target. There may be a chance that Chapter 4 is hard to complete before I have a substantial amount of my practical work done. In which case, I'll be bullet pointing the chapter as accurately as possible and filling in the gaps as I go.

- I've been so worried about the essay that I put the practical on the back-burner. Although I've been researching for it alongside my essay, and beginning to create work, I haven't been pushing this far enough and really exhausting ideas. I'm determined to change this now. I'm disappointed in myself but there's no point in moaning about it.

Following Peer Review...

From this point onward I'll:
- Blog decision making, evaluations, reflections and practical development
- Work with 40 credits in mind. This should be a substantial outcome
- Prep questions for the final tutorial next week
- Look back through ILOs and module info to make sure I'm familiar with it all
- Double check dissertation guidance information
- Read back through CoP Lectures, especially 'Resolving research project' notes
- Look out for dissertation binding information
- Read over submission details

The FINAL CRIT will be on Friday 6th January for which I need:
- Final resolutions
- Relevant supporting work
- Proposed outcomes
- Design boards
- 250 word statement clarifying the project rationale and evaluating synthesis

This should all make sense as a body of work to somebody else looking at it
It is the final opportunity for any feedback
It should be all of the work that I am submitting the following Thursday 12th January

Consider:
- How I'm going to present my CoP3 practical project
- It has to speak for itself
- How can I best design my presentation boards?

For the submission on Thursday 12th January:
- P L A N  A H E A D
- Factor in the time for issuu documents, blogging, evaluations, presentations, binding and hand in
- The practical needs to be really well presented. Consider the format in the same way that I have to consider the format of the dissertation.

BLOG EVERYTHING 
- Will lose the opportunity for any feedback is my work is not on my blog

Peer Review: Practical

Today's peer review of the practical side of this module put a lot of stuff into perspective.

It was a wake up. I know that I've split my time unevenly and dedicated far more time to the research and writing of my dissertation. From this point on, it's absolutely vital that I pull my finger out with the practical work. I know what it is that I want to achieve but I haven't been doing it.

At this point now, I have research, concepts, sketches, specific ideas for my outcome and some beginnings of compositional roughs. However I need to carry out tests and really explore lino.
After all, the whole point of this practical element is to get good at lino cutting and produce some really beautiful work.

For today's peer review I made some design boards demonstrating the direction of my work:

The feedback that I got was positive in some respects. However, I'm aware of my downfalls already and know that I need to produce far more work, blog more, really explore linocutting and experiment, refine the ideas and come out with some really well crafted, high quality prints.

One thing that was pointed out was the idea that my practical doesn't relate to the theories I have learnt about in the research for my dissertation. I will address this properly in a separate post, where I will analyse the aspect of synthesis and my thoughts and feelings regarding the project.

I'm fully aware that I don't have all that much time left, but I'm also aware of how I work and am confident that I can pull this back in my favour, and make the project work for me through hard grafting and no-life-ing it.

In the second half of the crit, I came up with a visual explanation of my project proposal. It contained roughs of potential outcomes, and details of the format, number, scale, processes etc. I pitched it to the group.

Feedback following the review: 
- Great that I'm considering stock, paper quality and printing methods
- Ask print room staff about slight embossing when printing linos. I think this would have a really great effect, adding an additional tactile element to the prints
- The leather wrap is an effective approach for presentation that could look really beautiful and authentic.
- Embossing the leather could be difficult, have I thought about laser cutting it? Is it even necessary?
- The idea of the illuminated letter ties the whole project together and is really relevant to the time period I'm looking into
- One colour could be more effective and more relevant to old woodcut imagery than two. Also less time consuming, meaning I can spread my focus across multiple outcomes instead of spending too much more time on each one.
- Focus on creating really well refined designs, and really push the quality of the linos. If this means making 8 instead of 12, it doesn't matter.

I'm hoping that because I'm a key holder, this will make it slightly easier for me to access the print room. However, I'm not relying on this because LOADS of people will be approaching deadlines and needing the facilities. I want to make sure I'll be able to get into the room after xmas (which is realistically when all of my linos will be finished) so I'll check with the print room staff as soon as possible.

I was concerned about this peer review, because I was aware that I had fallen behind with the practical work. But I'm so glad of it, because it's given me that kick up the arse that I need, and made me realise that if I knuckle down now, I still have the opportunity to make a really successful project.

As long as I focus on:

- Blogging: Everything. Make a note of all practical work, all thoughts, directions. Practical, conceptual and theoretical developments - to demonstrate synthesis.

- Practical Production: Don't just talk about ideas. Actually MAKE them.

- Proposed Contextualisation and Distribution: Formats / scale / media etc. What do I need to do before I leave for xmas?

- Realistic Time and Project Management: Set time scales / work out the time I have left and what I need to achieve. Is it achievable?

- Reflection and Evaluation: Do it as I go. Blog. Annotate all points to ensure effective communication of my thought processes and ideas

Mark Making in Relief Printing / Digital Mocks

I came across this video when I was looking on youtube for lino cutting techniques. The references at the beginning are really interesting, and the majority of them use line really well to create tone and vary the value within the images.
This is something I want to be able to do. Use line in a way that helps to balance out the values, but also in a way that describes form, like Tomas Shahan says.

Watching another of his videos, it's making me realise that I'm struggling with the process of translating my drawings into the lino cut.
A lot of the time, I draw the rough sketch, and maybe accent the areas that will be highlights or shadows, then once I transfer the image onto the lino to cut it, I tend to wing it. I make it up as I go along a bit and just draw with the cutting tool.

Because this project is all about the quality, I really don't want to go through this process. Mainly because on occasion it's failed and I've realised as I've been cutting that it isn't going to turn out the way that I want it to. So I kind of wing it again even more to make it work.

I had the idea after watching this video, that maybe I could be mocking these up digitally and planning them using photoshop. That way, I can fill a blank canvas with a colour, and use the eraser tool / a white brush to rub away the areas that I would cut.
This might help me to visualise what the cut will look like far better.
It also means that I can scale the design to whatever size I want, print it and then transfer it.
Because that's another issue that I've had in the past - trying to draw and redraw a design to the right size.

The image above shows layers of a digital sketch, that is then treated in the same way as a woodblock to create the more refined drawing.

I think this image above is just demonstrates that although the design is relatively simple, the texture and tone created by the line work really makes it.
Also it's a reminder to consider printing finishes and paper colour etc. The debossing adds a real quality and tactile element.

Dissertation Draft - Thoughts / Evaluation

I struggled in some ways with writing the draft. Mainly due to the fact that I was still reading as I was writing in some cases. I find it hard not to do this, but this draft has given me a cut off point for the research.

I'm not researching any more.

The research that I have up to this point, I believe is strong and pretty extensive. It's informing me well enough to give me a good understanding of the contextual background of my essay. I'm understanding the historical, social and psychological elements that I'm writing about.

I've also read a fair amount to inform my contemporary counterpart in Chapter 3, learning about relevant theories. At this stage I need to stop worrying about finding more and more information.

Even with the information that I have now. I've realised something important. Although I've been more specific with my project, and although at first the idea of writing 9000 words was terrifying, I'm actually struggling to keep the word count down! Elements of my topic are broad, and I'm struggling to stay concise. There's always still so much more I can write.

And even though this is a bit frustrating, I'm seeing it as being a positive thing... That I actually have too much to say as opposed to not having enough.

I had an issue when trying to write chapter 3, I felt like something wasn't clicking. I think what I've been doing is overthinking and overanalysing instead of just getting the information down.

I went through a period when writing it, of constantly questioning myself and second guessing what I'm writing about. Never that I wasn't interested, and never that I was second guessing my subject choice or anything. I just felt like what I want to say is too big for me. I kept side stepping into points that were pulling me in a different direction and so what I've struggled with is staying specific and focused.

I did end up going over the word count in both chapters 2 and 3, by between 400 and 800 words. I think this will be easy enough to rectify after receiving feedback as I'll be more aware of what it is that needs to be omitted. ... Hopefully...!

I'm proud of myself that I've pushed through the parts that I've been struggling with, and am feeling as though it's a bit of a weight off my chest now that I've finished this first draft.

Part of me is a bit apprehensive that I could have to change a looooaddd of it or something. But for now my focus needs to be on the practical side of my project, which as of now is severely lacking!!

Time management has never been my strong point, so it's vital that I organise myself for the final month or so of this module.

I really really want to do well. I've never been the biggest fan of CoP, so would love to be able to look back on this module to see that it finally made sense to me and that I managed to produce something that I can be proud of.


---------------

As an additional note, when it came to moving the information about the Cathars to Chapter 3, I could not get it to fit right. It didn't feel as if it flowed. It appeared to be an irrelevant piece of information. However, due to the way in which witches were treated in the same way as heretics, I felt it was important to keep the information in the essay. So I left it in Chapter 2, but altered and refined it as much as I could in order to get it to flow and contribute, as opposed to seeming like a big block of information in the middle of the chapter.

Woodcut

Just using wiki to read up a little about woodcut

In Europe, woodcut is the oldest technique used for old master prints, developing about 1400, by using, on paper, existing techniques for printing. One of the more ancient woodcuts on paper that can be seen today is The Fire Madonna (Madonna del Fuoco, in the Italian language), in the Cathedral of Forlì, in Italy.

The explosion of sales of cheap woodcuts in the middle of the century led to a fall in standards, and many popular prints were very crude. The development of hatching followed on rather later than engraving. Michael Wolgemut was significant in making German woodcuts more sophisticated from about 1475, and Erhard Reuwich was the first to use cross-hatching (far harder to do than engraving or etching). Both of these produced mainly book-illustrations, as did various Italian artists who were also raising standards there at the same period. At the end of the century Albrecht Dürer brought the Western woodcut to a level that, arguably, has never been surpassed, and greatly increased the status of the single-leaf woodcut (i.e. an image sold separately).

As woodcut can be easily printed together with movable type, because both are relief-printed, it was the main medium for book illustrations until the late-sixteenth century. The first woodcut book illustration dates to about 1461, only a few years after the beginning of printing with movable type, printed by Albrecht Pfister in Bamberg.

Michael Wolgemut woodcut:

Synthesis

I feel as though this project is still cohesive, and the practical and written both tie in well with each other. At first I was concerned that I was branching off a bit randomly, but I'm finding that it really makes sense and the common themes between the essay and the practical are clear. The tools of torture and punishment all stand for symbols of repression and control. In the same way, the concept of persecuting witches / witch hunting stood as repression and control. Although I'm not illustrating the essay, there is still a clear link between the two.
I'm hoping that I'll be able to document my thought process clearly enough to communicate this throughout my project, and make proper use of the opportunity to explain in Chapter 4 of my dissertation.

Practical Presentation Considerations

Rough sketches of potential presentation ideas following the tutorial with Fred:

- A5 size cuts, given space and a wide border by printing on A4 paper

- 12 prints on high quality stock, preferably torn edges. Experiment with white / off white

- Page of text accompanying print, featuring an illuminated letter. Or, if I have time, a brief explanation of each print ft. illuminated letter. 

- Can I hand letter the text or should it be digitally printed? Digital print may take away from the process, but hand lettering could be really difficult in the appropriate kind of style - ink pen / dip pen / calligraphic?

- All prints presented in a box? 

- Wrapped in tissue then boxed?

- Leather strap keeping them all together?

- Piece of leather / heavy cloth to wrap around all prints like a book binding?

- Could leather be embossed / printed onto in some way? Does it need to be?

- Wrapped together with some kind of ribbon / string?

- Some kind of seal? Printed / stamped / embossed / wax seal?? 

Tutorial 4 - 24/11

In today's tutorial, it was a bit of a briefing on the interim submission and the practical element of the project. 

I had some questions about the structure of my essay that were answered, which I think will help me to write more fluently and finish my draft for the submission on Sunday.

Campbell and Jung should be addressed in my introduction, so that I can reference back to them in my Chapter 3 without having to define them.

I am feeling confident in my practical ideas, but I know that I'm behind on my blog, and I don't have all that much development work. I've struggled with managing my time and splitting it between the two elements of this module. 

I feel as though I've been spending a lot of time on writing and I definitely should have spent more on producing practical work. 

It's been suggested that alongside our practical proposals, we have a plan b. Just in case some things don't go to plan. Check print bookings before and after xmas. Have a 'worst case scenario'.

My whole project is about quality and presentation

So what is my minimum amount of outcomes necessary that still convey what I want them to? E.g. If - worst case - I can't get 12 prints made, can I focus on making 6 really beautifully refined ones? Might mean that I'm not rushing and that they are of a higher quality.

What do I need to have to answer my brief?

Consider my propositions - e.g. an exhibition of prints. I don't have to plan an exhibition, just propose in some way.

Consider final presentation of prints. Do they come with a transcript?

For interim submission:

Introduction

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Bullet point Chapter 4

Bullet point Conclusion

To do:

For practical, get up to date with blogging

Consider timescales and access to print facilities

Consider print quantity and scale

Practical: Outcome Considerations

I don't want to draw people in the illustrations, I want to keep it specific to the tools and contraptions. As I've sketched, I haven't enjoyed drawing the victims, I don't want it to be about that.

The way that I draw people would not suit the tone of voice that I'm looking for. I want the images to have a really mature feel about them; really well developed illustrations.

I'm not confident linocutting people / faces etc. Plus I find that it takes away from the whole feel of the prints.

I don't want it to be instantly 100% apparent what the torture tool is.

I also don't want them to look gruesome. I want them to look beautiful, but the idea of them is gruesome.

When people fist look at the prints they should see the process first. The illustration secondly, and consider the concept after that.

This project is all about getting better at a skill, and developing on what I already know. Therefore the emphasis is on the quality and the aesthetic.

I've also been considering the colours. I always use black, alwayyyysss. And although I'm looking at old woodcuts, that also use black, I want to push myself away from this if possible. I think it will mean that there is more of a focus on the details of the lino cuts, as the high contrast and high impact of black on white won't be the first thing you see. So in keeping with the historical feel, I'm considering sepia tones or a deep gold of some sort. This is something I can experiment with the more work I produce. There is a chance though that black just has more impact and looks better.. I'll have to see as I go.

Sketchbook Update

I'm trying to ensure that my sketchbook work is exploratory of drawing, and that I'm not just documenting things then totally moving on. Obviously I'll be selecting certain objects I've been drawing to revisit them later for further development. But I started sketching some shame masks and trying to capture some kind of texture and form using line. I tried to add some contour lines on some of them, for example the hog-like mask. But I was way too rough and sketchy, and didn't really consider it very much because it ended up giving the mask a completely wrong texture. It looks like a wicker basket .. So I'm going to have to consider this far more and experiment with different mark making to try to achieve the texture I want whilst getting the old woodcut aesthetic I'm after.

Kriminalmuseum Rothenburg

I suddently remembered that I have photos from the Kriminalmuseum in Rothenburg from when I visited Germany a couple of years ago. I could potentially use these to draw from:

Campbells Monomyth / Storytelling & Brothers Grimm

The Golden Age of Folk & Fairy Tales

Zipes, J. (2013). The Golden Age of Folk & Fairy Tales. USA: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., p.xxxiii.

One of the books I got out about the Brothers Grimm drew a parallel with what I've been reading about Campbell's functions of myth & storytelling patterns etc...

On discussing the 'pure German' nature of the Grimm's tales...The Grimms recognising in their collecting of stories that their tale types could be found in many other countries across Europe.

'Undoubtedly, the tales revealed more about the particular conditions experienced by the storytellers about their "national" identity. At the same time, they also reflected and continued to reflect that humans throughout the world invent and use stories in very similar ways to expose and articulate common problems and struggles as well as their wishes to overcome them.'

'This human urge to tell and to share experiences so that listeners might find ways to adapt to the world and improve their situation account for the utopian current especially in wonder and fairy tales. We tell and retell tales that become relevant in our lives, and the tales themselves form types that we use in our telling or reading to address carious issues such as child abandonment, the search for immortality, sibling rivalry, incest, rape, exploitation and so on.'

Campbell Quote = Challenge to The Burning Times

In contrast with 'The Burning Times' when feminist & witch Starhawk says:
'...for around 5000 years or longer we have been propagandised really to fear women's power...'

BILL MOYERS: There are women today who say that the spirit of the goddess has been in exile for 5,000 years, since the events that you…

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, not that… you can’t put it that far back. 5,000 years. She was a very potent figure in Hellenistic times in the Mediterranean. And she came back with the Virgin in the Roman Catholic tradition. I mean, you don’t have a tradition with the goddess celebrated any more beautifully and marvellously than in the 12th and 13th century French cathedrals, every one of which is called “Notre Dame.”

Moyers, B. (2014). Ep. 5: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth — ‘Love and the Goddess'. [online] www.billmoyers.com. Available at: http://billmoyers.com/content/ep-5-joseph-campbell-and-the-power-of-myth-love-and-the-goddess-audio/ [Accessed 16 Nov. 2016]

Essay Progress

Following my tutorial, I separated my essay out and split the information between the 2 chapters.

I now have 3504 words for Chapter 2.

Obviously, I need to reduce this down which I will do when I cut out the mass of info about the Cathars, some of which can potentially go into Chapter 3 instead.

Chapter 3 plan

Considering the importance of Triangulation throughout the essay, I've chosen 3 examples for each of the 2 archetypes of the witch and will compare / contrast between them.

- Because of the female focus in the witch craze, how were the women perceived? 2 Stereotypes of the witches. What characteristics did they have and why? Hag being the pagan wise woman. Seductress being the epitome of female sexuality. 400 words

- 'Why are these stereotypes of the witch enduring images?'
- Jung's Archetypes and Campbells Theories of myth - 200 words

- The Hag - 200 words
- Example: Historical - Durer - 200 words
- Example: Contemp - Grimm - 200 words
- Example: Contemp - Drag Me To Hell - 200 words

- The Seductress - 200 words
- Example: Historical - Durer - 200 words
- Example: Contemp - Grimm - 200 words
- Example: Contemp - Game of Thrones - 200 words

- Mini Conclusion: - 200 words
- Why are these representations of women as witches enduring images? Why do their characters still exist in film, art, literature etc today? Have they changed? - The Teen Witch. As a symbol of female power. Empowering young women.
- Link back to Jung and Campbell

Sex in Medieval Europe

In relation to sex being the force behind the seductress witch

...‘abstinence and adherence to the aims of nature became the basic tenets of Christian sexual teaching. No sex at all should be the highest Christian ideal…’ (Brundage, 1987, p.577)

p. 162

Brundage, J. (1987). Law, sex, and Christian society in medieval Europe. 1st ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p.577.

Campbell's Monomyth Applied to Melisandre

'Monomyth' / 'Hero's Journey' Elements & 'Archetype' applied to Melisandre - GoT

In this case I'm treating Stannis as the hero, even though his story doesn't actually follow the hero's journey through to the end. This is in order to highlight the character of Melisandre, or the Red Woman / Red Priestess. Game of Thrones characters are pretty complex and their stories are often really interwoven so I'm trying to draw parallels against the Monomyth and Archetypes in order to relate to the question of why the witch figure is an enduring image. 

In Melisandre's case she epitomises the Seductress form of the witch character. She is a contemporary example of the description of the sexual temptress that lures men in order to get what she wants. In the case of Stannis she achieves control over him in order to direct his actions to supposedly reflect and favour the will of her god, the Lord of Light. 

Melisandre has a striking appearance in contrast with her surroundings. She is tall, slim, pale, with red hair and red clothing. She is immune to the cold and doesn't wear much considering her environment. She is aligned with the archetypal image of the seductress witch as she uses both her magic and her body as tools of manipulation against men. 

She acts as 'Supernatural Aid' and close counsellor to Stannis. Offering 'help' to the 'true king' through information, prophecy, and ultimately through manipulation. She convinces him to follow the Lord of Light, ensuring him that she has prophesied his victory, although we actually see that this leads Stannis to defeat. She represents the 'Meeting with the Goddess' as she and Stannis form a bond in that he feels gives him greater power.

Her character is heavily sexual, and lives to serve her god. This sees her performing rituals, or convincing others to perform rituals that are essentially just glorified murder. Her character is so influential on Stannis that she takes advantage of his desperation as his attempts in battle fail, and even convinces him to brutally burn his own child at the stake, in the name of the Lord of Light and for the good of his cause. We see that nothing comes of this except more death and defeat. 

Melisandre carries out ceremonial or ritual magic, most of which revolves around her sexuality. For example when she retrieves royal blood from Gendry, she ties him to a bed and removes her clothes, taking advantage of his arousal to draw his blood with leeches. 

Game of Thrones sounds really mental when you write about it...

Basically she's always getting her kit off. (<-- Not putting this in essay)

She convinces Stannis that she can provide him with a son, resulting in him giving in to his carnal urges despite having a wife. Although later it isn't a child she bears but a supernatural shadow assassin. HA! whaaat? Also in regards to her sexuality, we see her try to tempt Jon Snow to have sex with her, but he rejects her advances. She is the 'Woman as Temptress'.

Supernatural Aid

Description: Some help is given to the hero, sufficient to make them wiser and stronger, and hopefully better able to face the challenges of the adventure. The aid given may include maps, information, weapons or some special talisman. It may be discovered by the hero, but is often furnished by a mentor of some kind. The hero may also be joined by a companion of some kind or perhaps an entire party, who will provide help along the way but cannot do what the hero must do. Discussion: The hero starts out as an ordinary person who would perhaps not be able to defeat the terrible opponents who will block his path. The aid acts to redress the balance somewhat, giving the hero some chance of success. Depending on the story, the aid may be magical or supernatural in nature. In 'real world' stories where magic is not allowed, then more normal aid may be given, such as where an older detective gives sage advice to the enthusiastic young rookie. A critical attribute that the mentor often gives is confidence. This gives the hero the ability to accept the call and face the slings and arrows of the unknown adventure. Note that this aid must not be too powerful or else there would be no excitement in the story. An 'invulnerability suit' would likely be just too boring. Thus, for example, Frodo's ring has the downside of trying to take over his mind and exposing him to Sauron's gaze. The hero's companions serve both as support, much as a football team who makes the space for the actual score. Companions also act as contrast, throwing light onto the hero and highlighting their special and heroic qualities. The Meeting with the Goddess Description:

On the road, the hero may meet a powerful female figure with whom he find unity and bonding of some kind. The goddess may be a mystical or supernatural being or she may be an ordinary woman with whom the hero gains support and synergy. Discussion: The goddess represents the female side of the hero (his anima) which, if he can join, will make him whole. Joining with the goddess may indicate unconditional and perfect love. In combination, the hero and their other half form the syzygy of the 'divine couple' or the sacred marriage of a joining of souls and hence the hero gains greater power. In mythological history, one of the earliest representations is in the Greek story of the earth mother Rhea, who saves the baby Zeus from his Titan father, Kronos. The earth mother also appears across many cultures and represents the living embodiment of the planet. The mother figure symbolizes creation, birth and nurture and in Christian religion, Mary has special a position. When the hero is female, then this may be a reversal, with her meeting a God who represents her animus.

Woman as Temptress

Description: Along the way, the hero may meet temptation, often in female form. This offers the hero short-term relief or gratification but giving in to this urge would cause the mission to fail and prove the hero unworthy. Discussion: The purpose of the temptress is to test (and hence demonstrate) the integrity of the hero by placing easy gratification or other gain in their path. By refusing this, the hero demonstrates himself to be true to heroic values and dedicated above all else to achievement of the primary goal. In contrast with the perfect love of the goddess, meeting the temptress represents material and carnal love that, whilst providing short-term pleasure has no longer-term value. Where the journey has a spiritual nature, the temptress may represent material things or the physical flesh of the hero and associated passions. The temptation may be deliberate and perhaps sent by the villain. It may also happen by chance. The Goddess may also play a role of temptation. Temptation can have uncertain outcome, perhaps even helping the hero, such as when the goddess has some tempting element. This may be used to further test the hero's ability to make difficult judgements. Mythology is full of temptresses, from goddesses who seduce humans to nymphs and sirens. Gods also are sometimes beguiled by human women. In the broader sense, the temptress represents temptation of any kind or distraction away from the hero's main task. In the Christian religion, Eve represents temptation. Mary Magdalene is also portrayed this way, although she repented and can represent the recognition of woman by woman of their power to tempt. Men are easily tempted by women, but it is less archetypal the other way around. Female heroes may or may not meet with male tempters -- the real concern is with temptation rather than gender. Changingminds.org. (n.d.). Campbell's 'Hero's Journey' Monomyth. [online] Available at: http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/plots/hero_journey/hero_journey.htm [Accessed 17 Nov. 2016].

Blake Morrison - Old Witches

http://www.blakemorrison.net/poetry/adow.html

Lancaster Assizes, 1612. Ten people from Pendle in Lancashire were hanged, pronounced guilty of the crime of witchcraft. Poems in this book give voice to characters involved in the trials: from the accused to the accusers, from a child who bore witness against her own mother to the hangman who carried out his job loyally and efficiently, yet not without stirrings of compassion. This collection also includes several poemsset in the Pennine countryside where Blake grew up, as well as the controversial tour-de-force 'The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper'.

Old Witches

The more blind, deaf, lame, arthritic,
hairy-chinned, bowbacked and incontinent,
the greater the power they have.

Their bony hands encircle your wrist,
their lips issue instructions,
Light the oven, let the cat in, sweep the floor,

Fetch that box of potions from my dresser, 

and you do, how can you not,
till the day your patience runs out.

Once they were hanged or drowned.
Today it's more subtle: a pillow when no one's looking

or an overdose of morphine –
a kindness to them as well as to you.

Wicked Bodies - The witch eduring & Link to Brothers Grimm

Petherbridge, D. (2013). Witches et wicked bodies. Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, p.111.

'Persistent images of the hideous, envious witch crone and the sinister sirens of the night were an important aspect of the Symbolist movement in the late nineteenth century, and also continued as powerful generators of art, literature, music, opera and film in the twentieth century.'

'Witchcraft was appropriated for children's consumption in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in increasingly sanitised formats, separating ugly history from delightful fairy tales. Tales of witches in text and illustration have never entirely lost their thrill but have become the designated space for exploration of dark and hidden desires, which the revelations of psychology have relocated within the individual unconscious.' 

'The rise of feminism in the twentieth century challenged centuries-old literary and visual stereotypes of women as entrenched forms of discrimination, radically affecting many women practitioners in the arts.'

'Misogyny, gender, age inequalities and, increasingly, the commodification of youth and beauty, so closely related to the dualistic stereotype of the 'witch', remain significant issues in modern society and culture.'

----------------------

- Maybe use one or two of these quotes when backing up critical analysis of contemporary references in Chapter 3.

- Especially appropriated for children's consumption

- Link to Brothers Grimm: hags / witches  &  evil step mothers as witches : crone & seductress 'dualistic stereotype'

- Evil step mother replacing birth mother. Seducing / manipulating husband / sometimes king etc. E.g. Hansel & Gretel convincing husband to abandon children in the forest

- Jung's archetypes of evil & terrible mother (step mother) taking over from the nurturing loving mother (birth mother) & taking the form of the witch to deal with projections of Campbell's metaphysical, cosmological, sociological & pedagogical functions.

- Even the forest (fitting in with the mother archetype) becomes the dark pitch black forest where the children get lost (fitting in with the evil mother archetypal image) & is the home of the embodiment of the anti-maternal image

Contemporary Witches

The midground between the Durer Images and the contemporary references below are examples drawn from Brothers Grimm.

The Hag
The forest witch
Hansel & Gretel

The Seductress
Evil Queen
Snow White

Reflects the archetypal image of the terrible mother.

The Hag

Sylvia Ganush

- Drag Me To Hell

The Seductress

Melisandre

- Game of Thrones

All compared to the historical depiction of the witch - seen in Dürer's representations.

Methodology / Research Approach

http://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/research-methods.html

Ontology. How you, the researcher, view the world and the assumptions that you make about the nature of the world and of reality.

Epistemology. The assumptions that you make about the best way of investigating the world and about reality.

Methodology. The way that you group together your research techniques to make a coherent picture.

Methods and techniques. What you actually do in order to collect your data and carry out your investigations.

The kind of data I will predominantly be using for my dissertation and the method of collecting it:

Qualitative data is about the nature of the thing investigated and tends to be words rather than numbers.

Secondary data is published by someone else, usually a public body or company, although it may also consist of archive material such as historical records. A researcher using such data needs to generate new and original insights into it.

Common errors about the Witch Hunts

http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/witch/werror.html#magic

Torture - link to practical.

#7. People condemned during the Witch Hunts were burned at the stake.
FACT: While indeed governments did burn many witches at the stake, most were executed by other means.
COMMENTARY: The favorite neo-pagan term for the period of the Witch Hunts is "the Burning Times." The most common form of execution, though, was hanging. Admittedly, burning was important in many of these cases also, since to further protect against any malevolence from the dead witch, authorities often burned the remains afterward. Other popular forms of execution for witches included beheading, drowning, and breaking on the wheel.  Witches were rarely buried alive, boiled alive, impaled, sawed in two, flayed, drawn and quartered, or disemboweled, as other contemporary criminals were.  Other punishments inflicted on convicted witches included mutilating (cutting off of a hand or ear for example), branding, whipping, dunking, locking in the the stocks, jailing, fining, banishing, or selling into slavery.
A notoriously common myth is that the alleged witches at Salem in colonial Massachusetts were burned. All of the convicted during the Salem Witch Hunt in 1692 died by hanging.  Others died by natural causes before conviction or execution, and Giles Corey was pressed to death. In fact, no witches were executed by burning in the English colonies of North America. English law did not permit it.

Jungs Archetypes & Campbells Function of Myth

Jung's Archetypes

The psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung, used the concept of archetype in his theory of the human psyche. He believed that universal, mythic characters—archetypes—reside within the collective unconscious of people the world over.

Strictly speaking, Jungian archetypes refer to unclear underlying forms or the archetypes-as-such from which emerge images and motifs such as the mother, the child, the trickster, and the flood among others. It is history, culture and personal context that shape these manifest representations thereby giving them their specific content. These images and motifs are more precisely called archetypal images. However it is common for the term archetype to be used interchangeably to refer to both archetypes-as-such and archetypal images.

Archetypes abound in contemporary films and literature as they have in creative works of the past, being unconscious projections of the collective unconscious that serve to embody central societal and developmental struggles in a media that entertain as well as instruct. Films are a contemporary form of mythmaking, reflecting our response to ourselves and the mysteries and wonders of our existence

(Wiki)

Jung: 4 archetypes book

Jung, C. (2003). Four archetypes. London: Routledge, pp. 14-15, 138.

The mother - pg 14 - 15: 156

‘Mythology offers many variations of the mother archetype…Many things arousing devotion or feelings of awe, as for instance the Church…heaven, earth, the woods, the sea or any till waters, matter even, the underworld and the moon, can be mother-symbols.’

‘Hollow objects such as ovens and cooking vessels are associated with the mother archetype…’

157

All these symbols can have a positive, favourable meaning or a negative, evil meaning…Evil symbols are the witch, the dragon, the grave…

158

On the negative side the mother archetype may connote anything secret, hidden, dark; the abyss, the world of the dead, anything that devours, seduces, and poisons, that is terrifying and inescapable like fate.

pg 138: 431

‘…like the devil who delights in disguising himself as an angel of lights…’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungian_archetypes

https://www.psychologistworld.com/cognitive/carl-jung-analytical-psychology.php

https://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/carl-jung-and-tarot/

Joseph Campbell - Monomyth / Functions of Myth

https://fractalenlightenment.com/36315/life/joseph-campbells-four-basic-functions-of-mythology

http://billmoyers.com/content/ep-2-joseph-campbell-and-the-power-of-myth-the-message-of-the-myth/

Moyers, B. (2014). Ep. 2: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth -- 'The Message of Myth'. [online] www.billmoyers.com. Available at: http://billmoyers.com/content/ep-2-joseph-campbell-and-the-power-of-myth-the-message-of-the-myth/ [Accessed 10 Nov. 2016]

Myths

BILL MOYERS: So myths are stories of the search by men and women through the ages for meaning, for significance, to make life signify, to touch the eternal, to understand the mysterious, to find out who we are.

CAMPBELL: People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that the life experiences that we have on the purely physical plane will have resonances within that are those of our own innermost being and reality. And so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive, that’s what it’s all finally about, and that’s what these clues help us to find within ourselves.

BILL MOYERS: Myths are clues?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life.

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JOSEPH CAMPBELL: The experience of life. The mind has to do with meaning; in here, what’s the meaning of a flower? That Zen story of the sermon of the Buddha when his whole company was gathered, and he simply lifted a flower. And there’s only one man, Kashyapa, who gave him a sign with his eye that he understood what was said.

What’s the meaning of the universe? What’s the meaning of a flea? It’s just there, that’s it, and your own meaning is that you’re there. Now we are so engaged in doing things, to achieve purposes of outer value, that we forget that the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it’s all about.

Now, we want to think about God. God is a thought, God is a name, God is an idea, but its reference is to something that transcends all thinking. The ultimate mystery of being is beyond all categories of thought. My friend Heinrich Zimmer of years ago used to say, “The best things can’t be told.” Because they transcend thought. The second best are misunderstood, because those are the thoughts that are supposed to refer to that which can’t be thought about, you know. And one gets stuck with the thoughts. The third best are what we talk about, you see. And myth is that field of reference, metaphors referring to what is absolutely transcendent.

BILL MOYERS: What can’t be known.

Nature & religion

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: ...Here’s a whole mythology based on the insight that transcends duality. Ours is a mythology that’s based on the insight of duality. And so our religion tends to be ethical in its accent, sin and atonement, right and wrong. It started with a sin, you see. In other words, moving out of the mythological zone, the garden of paradise where there is no time, and where men and women don’t even know that they’re different from each other, there the two are just creatures. And God and man are practically the same: “He walks in the cool of the evening in the garden where we are.” And then they eat the apple, the knowledge of the pairs of opposites, and man and woman then cover their shame, that they’re different; God and man, they’re different; man and nature, as against man.

Now, in the other mythologies, one puts oneself in accord with the world. If the world is a mixture of good and evil, you do not put yourself in accord with it. You identify with the good and you fight against the evil, and this is a religious system which belongs to the Near East, following Zarathustra’s time. It’s in the biblical tradition, all the way, in Christianity and in Islam as well. This business of not being with nature, and we speak with sort of derogation of “the nature religions.” You see, with that fall in the garden, nature was regarded as corrupt. There’s a myth for you that corrupts the whole world for us. And every spontaneous act is sinful, because nature is corrupt and has to be corrected, must not be yielded to. You get a totally different civilization, a totally different way of living according to your myth as to whether nature is fallen or whether nature is itself a manifestation of divinity, and the spirit being the revelation of the divinity that’s inherent in nature.

I’ll never forget the experience I had when I was in Japan. To be in a place that never heard of the fall in the garden of Eden. To be in a place where I can read in one of the Shinto texts, “The processes of nature cannot be evil.” When every impulse, every natural impulse, is not to be corrected, but to be sublimated, you know, to be beautified. And the glorious interest in the beauty of nature and cooperation with nature, and coordination, so that in some of those gardens you don’t know where nature begins and art ends. This to me was a tremendous experience, and it’s another mythology.

In relation to the symbol of the snake through different cultures & discussing the Fall:

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: The power of life, because the snake sheds its skin, just as the moon sheds its shadow. The snake in most cultures is positive. Even the most poisonous thing, in India, the cobra, is a sacred animal. And the serpent, Naga, the serpent king, Nagaraga, is the next thing to the Buddha, because the serpent represents the power of life in the field of time to throw off death, and the Buddha represents the power of life in the field of eternity to be eternally alive.

Now, I saw a fantastic thing of a Burmese priestess, a snake priestess, who had to bring rain to her people by calling a king cobra from his den and kissing him three times on the nose. There was the cobra, the giver of life, the giver of rain, which is of life, as the divine positive, not negative, figure.

BILL MOYERS: The Christian stories turn it around, because the serpent was the seducer.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, what that amounts to is a refusal to affirm life. Life is evil in this view. Every natural impulse is sinful unless you’ve been baptized or circumcised, in this tradition that we’ve inherited. For heaven’s sakes!

BILL MOYERS: By having been the tempter, women have paid a great price, because in mythology, some of this mythology, they are the ones who led to the downfall.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Of course they did. I mean, they represent life. Man doesn’t enter life except by woman, and so it is woman who brings us into the world of polarities and pair of opposites and suffering and all. But I think it’s a really childish attitude, to say “no” to life with all its pain, you know, to say this is something that should not have been.

Archetypes: 

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yes, well, there are only two ways to explain it, and one is by diffusion, that an influence came from there to here, and the other is by separate development. And when you have the idea of separate development, this speaks for certain powers in the psyche which are common to all mankind. Otherwise you couldn’t have — and to the detail the correspondences can be identified, it’s astonishing when one studies these things in depth, the degree to which the agreements go between totally separated cultures.

BILL MOYERS: Which says something about the commonality of the species, doesn’t it?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, yes, that was Carl Jung’s idea, which he calls the archetypes, archetypes of the collective unconscious.

BILL MOYERS: What do you mean by archetypes?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: An archetype is a constant form, a basic fundamental form which appears in the works of that person over there, and this person over here, without connecting them. They are expressions of the structure of the human psyche.

BILL MOYERS: So if you find in a variety of cultures, each one telling the story of creation or the story of a virgin birth or the story of a savior who comes and dies and is resurrected, you’re saying something about what is inside us and the need to understand.

One can say that the images of myth are reflections of spiritual and depth potentialities of every one of us. And that through contemplating those, we evoke those powers in our own lives to operate through ourselves.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: That’s right. One can say that the images of myth are reflections of spiritual and depth potentialities of every one of us. And that through contemplating those, we evoke those powers in our own lives to operate through ourselves. There was a very important anthropologist — he’s the one with whom my works begin, you might say, my studies — Bastian in Germany, end of the last century and first part of this. He was a world traveler and recognized very soon that there were certain motifs that appeared in all of the religions and all of the mythologies of the world. Such an idea, for example, as a spiritual power, that’s an archetypal image that appears everywhere. And he called these “elementary ideas.” But they appear in very different forms and different provinces and at different times, and those different forms are costumes he called ethnic or folk ideas. But within the ethnic idea is the elementary idea, and it is those elementary ideas that Carl Jung then began studying and called “archetypes of the unconscious.” When you say elementary idea, they seem to come from up here. When you say archetypes of the unconscious, they come from up here, and they appear in our dreams, as well as in myths.

BILL MOYERS: So when one scripture talked about being made in his image, in God’s image, it’s being, it’s being created with certain qualities that every human being possesses, no matter what that person’s religion or culture or geography or heritage.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: God would be the ultimate elementary idea of man.

BILL MOYERS: The primal need.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: And we are all made in the image of God, okay? So that is the ultimate elementary idea or archetype of man.

Four functions

BILL MOYERS: How do we live without myths, then?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, we’re doing it.The individual has to find the aspect of myth that has to do with the conduct of his life. There are a number of services that myths serve. The basic one is opening the world to the dimension of mystery. If you lose that, you don’t have a mythology, to realize the mystery that underlies all forms. But then there comes the cosmological aspect of myth, seeing that mystery as manifest through all things, so that the universe becomes as it were a holy picture, you are always addressed to the transcendent mystery through that. But then there’s another function, and that’s the sociological one, of validating or maintaining a certain society. That is the side of the thing that has taken over in our world.

BILL MOYERS: What do you mean?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Ethical laws, the laws of life in the society, all of Yahweh’s pages and pages and pages of what kind of clothes to wear, how to behave to each other, and all that, do you see, in terms of the values of this particular society. But then there’s a fourth function of myth, and this is the one that I think today everyone must try to relate to, and that’s the pedagogical function. How to live a human lifetime under any circumstances. Myth can tell you that.