TIME

This is the fourth drawing in my series of manuscript pages. The drawing is about the passage of time and our imminent deaths; what we do between birth and death. The bottom section is an interpretation of (one of) Bosch's St. Anthony paintings. St. Anthony was tempted (supposedly) by demons and women. St. Anthony, here, is tempted by musicians, fame and riches, books, women and, in general, civilization.

The drawing references Tolkien in a few places, on the left next to the phases of the moon are the names of the month which he devised for use by the inhabitants of The Shire, in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, although there are many instances in the latter work of Hobbits using the names of our months. As well, there is a Gandalf quote on the right hand side, above a quote from the Iliad about the ephemeral nature of being alive. There were a few more quotes of this nature, one especially good one from Beowulf, but I've reserved that for the page which is explicitly about death and dying. These pages are meant to be easier to “get” than my earlier drawings, and as such, they have fewer band references and fewer themes per page.

The middle, six panel section borrows format and concept from Roman de la Rose, this one drawn by the scribe Girart de biaulieu. This was the most popular text in medieval times, a secular prose poem about courtly love and female sexuality. It has survived to this day in hundreds of hand made copies.