Sarum Blue is at once most blue and also....violet

Sarum Blue has been a controversial subject.  We have been commissioned a couple of times to make something in that Liturgical Colour... and as always, we at Klave Centesca try to do a certain degree of  research before embarking on any project.  It is always good to learn new things!

Turns out we see this meme all the time out there:

 

And yes, it has been posted in reference to our blue vestments:

 

So let's go down the rabbit hole:

 

  Yes, these are three chasubles depicted in manuscripts ranging between the 10th and 15c., and yes they are quite blue.  Are they Sarum?  No, but the important thing is that they ARE blue.. ultramarine blue in the first two images, to be exact, which is the pigment often used in those days to achieve this colour from the painstaking process of grinding the mineral lapis lazuli.  

 

The other choice of blue pigment was made out of cobalt... both rather bright, definitive, shades of blue.  

But... it is true... the ordines and rubrics of the Church don't generally consider blue as a liturgical colour... yet it appears not just in chasubles... but also in the form of copes:

And then, also in the form of choir dress: are certain of these cardinals wearing blue cappa magnas?

Are these French Prelates all in blue choir dress too?

 

Well, it's not some conspiracy.  Turns out, the French Prelates are all Bishops - they are actually wearing violet mozettas (aka camails, in French) lined in amaranth red as prescribed for their hierarchy to this day... just that in painting, back before acrylics and oils came in tubes, blue was still made out of ground lapis and smelt and other proprietary recipes...and was used to "depict" the prescribed "violaceus" hues of the church.  

 

Yes, that is how in this beautiful images of a papal chapels, processions and consistories, there are red Cardinals and a few "blue" prelates too:

 

  

And just as art imitates life... eventually, life imitates art.  This is an extant Halberstadt blue chasuble from the 13c. Keeping in mind that textile colours do fade with time.

  

But if textiles fade, certainly the stained glass windows and illuminated manuscripts that are part of our collective patrimony, culture and memory, do not.  So to those who question the existence of Sarum blue... and then it's bright incarnations as royal, azure, lapis and cobalt... well... look at the rubrics and when is it used: Advent... when violet is called for... and look at the evidence above where these bright blues are used to depict whatever the church prescribes as violet in art: from the choir dress of bishops, to the court dress of domestic prelates of the pope, and vestments in places outside the use of Sarum where "blue" is not an option but violet always is.  Sarum blue is not an anomaly.  And these bright hues, end up closely resembling the historical ultramarine obtained from the lapis.

 

 Hence. voila!

Sarum blue is at once most blue, and also... violet. Technically.

:)

Here are links to two of our featured blue sets, if you'd like to revisit them:

Sarum Blue Vestments for Chapel of Saint Andrew

Red Becket Style Chasuble lined in Royal Blue

Lion of Saint Mark Church Banner and Stand

Today is World Lion Day, apparently.  In heraldry, lions are featured prominently, and hence why we've become familiar with them over time.

In one instance - more vexilological than armorial perhaps -  we've outdone ourselves with the particular item featured today.  This, is the Banner we made with the lion of Saint Mark embroidered in 3D using a technique called stumpwork.

It is a bit like additive sculpting - if it were clay - but mind you, the whole thing is made of fabric and thread and just the right bits of padding to achieve the three-dimensional features of the big cat.

Once we had the banner - a stand like this wouldn't do, would it?  The kind used in police stations, schools and the Department of Motor Vehicles?!

So... accordingly, the pole is covered in velvet, and so is the custom-made stand.  We used the method employed for covering the chairs-of-state since elizabethan times in England.   Would also  look nice as a stand for a Paschal Candle or the 6 Candles around a catafalque, yes?

But back to our banner: because it is the banner of a church proper, it got topped with a cross to match the stand.

But how does one even begin the process to get a glorious custom-made banner?  Contact us, tell us what you have in mind, we sketch a few proposals and you choose whar you like or do not like and in the end, the results speak for themselves, we hope.

Here are some of the initial proposals based on the discussions with Father Bob and Mother Liza about the design.

We knew the colours would be red and blue; just not sure in what order.  Also, if to go with a colorful lion or something more fierce. Mind you, it was option C that was chosen for the colour scheme.  The colorful feline inspired by the book of Kells did not win favor in the end.

This one, from a mosaic at Trinity Cathedral became the model to follow.

A cartoon was drawn to suit our purposes, and the embroidery was made.  The end result always looks better than the cartoons... it takes a little imagination and a whole lotta faith,  But it's always worth it.

And thus, we end as we started, with the face of the lion in the banner of Saint Mark's.  All for about the price of one of the ready made banners one gets from your average catalog!

#worldlionday

To see the stand in blue velvet and the Banner made for the DOK, go here.