Members of the Bronx River Art Club embarked on an inspiring journey to the Morgan Library & Museum on November 2 and 14.
The students in the art club went on the trip to get ideas to make projects based on what they saw at the Morgan Library & Museum. And there’s a lot to see: The museum has thousands of ornate books from many different places, including the oldest book in world, which is worth a fortune.
“The art club went to the museum so it will help them get better ideas about the project they have to do about the illuminated art,” explained Evelyn Mendez, an art club advisor and English teacher. “Illuminated art is a book made by hand with natural colors and pigments. They used actual gold to paint the different patterns in the book,”
Aimee Cavazzi, an art club advisor, also accompanied the students on the trip. “As an art teacher my job is to help the students with their art work and give them ideas about how to create illumination,” she said. “All the colors are made of natural resources. The color red is created by crushing an insect called the Cochineal that is imported from Mexico. The color blue is created by crushing a flower called Lapis Lazuli that is imported from Afghanistan. The color green is created by crushing a rock called Malachite and yellow is created by crushing Saffron and to stick this to the paper they use a fish bladder.”
As an English teacher, Ms. Mendez says she hopes to help the students write their own stories. “The story needs to be short and most of the book will have art and patterns. ”
Ms. Mendez added that she loved the art and all the books she saw at the museum. “The book takes years to create with all sorts of natural pigment and it costs a lot of money. The book had so many patterns that were painted with real gold. The best part of the trip was that the museum offered us 14 karat real gold. I’m happy that I’m part of this club and get to see so many beautiful art works.”
Want to know more about art or the Morgan Library? Consider joining the art club or visiting the Morgan Library. You also can learn about Bella da Costa Greene, J.P. Morgan’s assistant who collected the books, at this link: : https://www.themorgan.org/belle-greene
