A Scroll for A Count - Part the Second

If I've set this up correctly, you should be reading this post after this "scroll" has gone out in court, but I'll have been working on it for a month and a half.  This is my journey for the Count scroll for His Excellency, Count Ioannes.

My first task on this project is to come up with a concept sketch.  To do that, I looked at hundreds of mosaics and settled on inspiration from two pieces from the Antioch Mosaics:

The Antioch Mosaics are a group of about 300 pieces found in modern day Antakya in southeastern Turkey, near the border of Syria and date to the second century during the reign of Hadrian to the reign of Justinian in the sixth century. [1]

Because doing a portrait for my first mosaic project seems like a Good Idea At The Time (TM) (and definitely scary), I've chosen to attempt to recreate this photo taken at Spring Coronation by my husband, Brenden.

 
With my primary pieces in place, the next step is to sketch out the design to scale.  My initial thought was to do something big. Like, 4'x5' big.  Practicality made me come to my senses.  I mean, a mosaic that size will be heavy and I have no idea how long it will take to do.  Plus, how will they get it home? Where will they put it?  What if they hang it over their bed and it falls and smooshes them both in their sleep?  These are the kinds of things that get you thrown into an oubliette.

I opted for a much more reasonable 2'x3'.  I grabbed my oversized graph paper and started sketching.  Scrolls should have words, but mosaics aren't really designed for excessive verbiage.  The words that will be spoken in court will be written by the very talented Lord Nicol mac Donnchaidh, but I wanted to keep the words on the front of the scroll straightforward.   There's plenty of examples of names and messages on mosaics, and something simple like ""Ivan and Matilde name Ioannes Count, October 7, A.S. 52

[2]

[3]

[4]

Which means that I have to turn to one of my favorite sources for all things Roman, Master Tiberivs Ivlivs Rvfvs Primvs.  This, my friends, is where I learn just how strange Latin is.  Apparently, while the order of words doesn't matter so much, you can tell who is doing what to whom by changing the endings of words.  Now, in English, verbs are usually the thing that gets a different ending to determine tense (walk, walking, walked) but apparently, Latin does funky things to nouns too.  Needless to say, I don't fully grasp how it all works, but after some checking, he recommended "Ivan et Matilde comitem Ionnem Fecunt Nonis Octobris A.S. LII".  Short. Sweet.  Something I can work with.

An evening of sketching (and double checking my paperwork to make sure I get Matilde's name correct) and I have the start of my project.

[1] Baltimore Museum of Art Antioch Mosaic Collection
[2] Cave Canem mosaic at the entrance to the House of the Tragic Poet.  Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
[3] Vergilius. Mosaic by Monnus. 4th cent. CE. Trier (Augusta Treverorum), Rhenish State Museum
[4] NECROPOLE OCCIDENTALE DE TIPASA (MATARES).