Art and Beauty Tuesday--Daniel Mitsui

Daniel Mitsuri's Memento Mori is a collage of sorts, hand-drawn using black and red ink on calfskin vellum.  Mitsuri uses traditional Catholic images depicting, on the upper left, a man on his deathbed, with both the devil and an angel waiting to receive his soul.  On the upper right, Jesus is coming at the Last Judgement, raising the dead from their graves.  The bottom left depicts hell, with all its scary darkness.  The bottom right shows heaven, with angels singing before the Throne of the Lamb, who gives His blood for the salvation of mankind.

Across the center, we see "Memento Mori", Latin for "remember death", a popular theme in the Middle Ages, when death was common, frequent and often unexpected especially during the years of the Black Plague.

The circle in the center seems to be a zodiac/star chart--probably a reminder that when one's time comes, death is inevitable.

In today's modern time we are protected from death.  We don't see it as a matter of course in our farm animals and loved ones who die at home.  "Memento Mori" and indeed the various cultures who take a day per year to "remember death"--rather fittingly on the evening before our two afterlife-related feast days, All Saints and All Souls.

Along the bottom of the drawing, Mitsui has lettered Matthew 12:37 in Latin:  For by your words, you will be justified and by your words, you will be condemned. 

As in many illuminated manuscripts, the initial letter is large and highlighted, this time in red.

Mitsui draws inspiration from his own Japanese tradition which often uses only black ink when drawing, except for the signature, which is lettered in red.