[Scriptoris] knot work question

[Diane Rudin]

--- Ciard49 at aol.com wrote:

> I happened to be looking at portraits of Henry VIII last night, and he had  
> tons of knotwork embroidered onto his clothes. I believe his dau. Elizabeth
> was 
>  also fond of knotwork on her clothes. Obviously knotwork was still popular  
> in late period.

Interlaced patterns were popular for use on clothing in sixteenth-century
Renaissance Europe, and for initial letters and cadel flourishes in document
decoration at the same time.  However, it would be incorrect to generalize from
those narrowly limited examples that "knotwork" was used at that same time as a
principal element in the type of large-scale illumination favored for SCA use. 
That sort of conjecture is more appropriate for earlier-period decorative arts.

For example, the diapering patterns that fill in spaces, especially in
decorated letters, in medieval illumination are related to the Renaissance
blackwork patterns used to fill in spaces in flora; however, no one created
entire illuminated pages of diapering.

Since the artist is probably not interested in the penwork interlaces of
Renaissance documents, and would prefer an illumination pattern with overall
interlacing, I would recommend looking at some of the fifteenth-century Italian
Renaissance humanist illumination, especially that used by printers.  An
example of this sort of thing is the Sable Thistle I designed that I believe
might still be being used (it's the one based on a woodcut).

If you need something more specific in the way of source material suggestions,
I could go digging through my book collection for some citations.  There's at
least one fifteenth-century interlaced woodcut decoration that leaps to mind.

--Serena, Magistra Laureae

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