February contest entry

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February contest entry

Postby Aethelraed_Unraed » Wed Feb 17, 2016 10:08 pm

Charlemagne
charlemagne14_hd.png

Charlemagne is perhaps the best known king of the middle ages. Under his guidance, the Frankish empire reached an amount of power not seen since the times of the Romans some 300 years before. A great resurgence of science, arts and literature occurred during his reign, and is known as the Carolingian renaissance.

I've lately been working on a pet project of mine, a full interactive map of Charlemagne's whereabouts during the years 768-814 (his reign). To spice this up a bit, I created this render of him. I wanted it to look kind of like an official portrait, so I made Charlemagne have a neutral but serious expression in front of a simple, black background.

I made the model based on a contemporary source, that describes his looks as follows:
"He was heavily built, sturdy, and of considerable stature, although not exceptionally so, since his height was seven times the length of his own foot. He had a round head, large and lively eyes, a slightly larger nose than usual, white but still attractive hair, a bright and cheerful expression, a short and fat neck, and he enjoyed good health, except for the fevers that affected him in the last few years of his life. [...] He used to wear the [Frankish] dress—next his skin a linen shirt and linen breeches, and above these a tunic fringed with silk; while hose fastened by bands covered his lower limbs, and shoes his feet, and he protected his shoulders and chest in winter by a close-fitting coat of otter or marten skins. [...] He despised foreign costumes, however handsome, and never allowed himself to be robed in them, except twice in Rome, when he donned the Roman tunic, chlamys, and shoes [...]." (Einhard, Vita Karoli Magni, ca. 817-833)

Made in Blender using Cycles, and Gimp for texturing. All textures by either makehuman or me. The fibula is based on the Fuller Brooch, the crown on the Iron Crown of Lombardy (but clearly different).

Please do take a look at the finished map at my site :) https://aethelraed.ddns.net/charlemagne/intro.html
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Re: February contest entry

Postby learning » Fri Feb 19, 2016 6:12 pm

Wow, it's almost exactly how I imagined him! Except maybe I thought his hair and beard a bit more curly, kind of like https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... ueste1.jpg
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