Tuesday, June 22
In Honor of St. Thomas More's Feast
Matthew Alderman. S. Thomas More with a Patron. Ink on vellum. April-May 2009. Private Collection, New Hampshire.
Here is a drawing commission I did last year for a young lady and attorney (and as of a few months ago, mother-to-be) with a great devotion to St. Thomas More. The patron is shown being presented by her guardian angel to St. Thomas More, who is accompanied by another angel bearing the headsman's axe of his execution. The saint's arms, with the external ornaments of his Lord Chancillorship, are shown at bottom right, with the client's arms (though shown on a generic shield rather than the female lozenge, due, I admit, to an oversight on my part) are shown at left. Much of the composition is inspired by van Eyck's Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, though unlike Rolin, the client is being humbly presented by a heavenly intermediary rather than presuming to simply present herself at the foot of her patron saint.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
