Malleus Maleficarum: the text

This is where we left it last week:

It seems to me that there should be actual text from Malleus Maleficarum in this banner. I looked around online, and sure enough, I was able to download the whole book! (Well, my husband was able to do it).  Reading the book was difficult: it’s so hateful and nasty that I found myself trying to look for passages I could use without actually having my mind take in the words. But I found some text that spells out the repulsive meaning, and typed it into red/orange:

Now I just had to very carefully use the clone stamp tool to add the glowing words to my image:

You just never know when to stop, do you, Diane? Go on, add another layer:

It really seemed finished….but I didn’t like it, and didn’t know what else to do. I was actually smart enough to leave it alone for a few days. And I remembered a church I saw years ago, on a mesa out west. Long ago, Catholic priests had forced the building of the church, with the usual crucifix and saints. But the people who used and supplied the unwilling labor to build it also added their own images, on the ceiling, above the rest.

Yes, this banner is about the oppression of women…but let’s put them on top. Let’s find some medieval female faces showing horror:

But….when I Googled ‘Medieval women mourning’ (or screaming or yelling or crying or showing any agitation), the results were pathetic. These women (above) are….mildly displeased. Very few images of women in the Middle Ages show any real emotion. Then I remembered Niccolo Dell Arca and his Compianto sul Cristo Morto…

…a life-size group of six  figures lamenting the dead Christ. Now, these figures show some emotion! 

By using photos of three of the figures from different angles, I was able to get the faces I needed for this:

I think we’ve got it!

Ready to send to Spoonflower. If I keep sewing like crazy, I should have at least one of the other 2 banners ready to show you next week.

contact me at dianesavona@aol.com