This is a newly completed set of altar cards with prayers for the Requiem Mass. The borders and illustrations I drew in ink on paper; the text is set in a typeface that I designed myself.
I imitated the style of printed books from the 15th century, and from the 19th century Arts and Crafts movement, but was somewhat adventurous in my choice of decorative plants and animals; the borders include poison ivy, columbine, hemlock, venus flytraps, dandelions, morel mushrooms, spider webs, tree frogs, roman snails, swallowtail butterflies and caterpillars.
The central card includes an image of Jesus Christ being pierced by a lance, with the centurions, the good and bad thieves, the sponge-bearer, and the soldiers gambling for His garments. The Blessed Virgin Mary and John the Apostle stand in niches in the border. In the bas-de-page are Adam and Eve, and emblems of the theological virtues: faith and hope, written in orthogonal letters, and charity, with an emblem of the Sacred Heart.
King David and the Eritrean Sibyl stand in niches in the borders of the other two cards; this refers to the words of the Dies Iræ sequence sung at Requiem Masses; David and the Sibyl are prophets of the Last Judgment. Each of these cards has emblems of orthogonal letters spelling REQUIEM ETERNAM and AMEN.
You can read more about these here.
