Hildegard and Volmar
Hildegard of bingen, comes from a bit different back round than maybe you and me. Her date of birth is really unknown but believes to have been born around the year 1098. She comes from a large family, she being born the tenth child to her mother and father. As a young child, around the age of three Hildegard started having visions of luminous objects. She realized she had a unique ability and hid this gift for many years. At age eight her family sent her to Anchoress name Jutta to receive education in religion.
The painting “ Hildegard and Volmar “ was a vision that came to Hildegard which she believes came from God. Hildegard and with the help of other nuns painted the visions she was having and kept record of them in writing. The date of the creation is really not known. The original painting can not be found today. It was said to have been lost during WWII. Today you can only see the painting by looking at images that are black and white or a hand painted full color facsimile a copy nuns painted in 1923-1933.
I choose to use a canvas, oil paints, pencil and a few pieces of scratch paper. I spent a few days studying the painting from the book and online, than started my project.
I have learned throughout my study, that the picture I picked had to be a copy from the nuns because the original was lost. The meaning behind the picture is Hildegard receiving a flash of devine insight, which is represented by the flames above her head. I enjoyed learning about this because she was the “first” women of many fields including poems, letters,songs,plays,texts and many more.
I found my information from www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidegrad_of_Bingen
www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegard.html and also from my book “Art a brief history.