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Being the history geek that I am, I guess it is kind of surprising that I haven't really done a "historically accurate" animation series before, but after seeing that awesome Buzzfeed Disney Princess video, and of course all the amazing art on here, I was inspired to make my own. I guess it is better late than never!
As I've said before elsewhere, from an artistic standpoint, I'm not at all bothered by the animated designs of the characters in Disney and Dreamworks films. They weren't documentaries after all so in most cases they didn't need to be accurate, and in animation in particular, it is more important to convey character and style in the designs. I am not trying to "fix" anything because I don't think there is anything to fix! That being said, it can still be fun to learn how your favorite characters might have looked if they had existed in real life.
For my series, I am trying to be as accurate as I possibly can. I'm taking the country of origin, the social class, the culture, and the specific decade into mind (instead of just a general sweep of multiple decades), and also adapting the colors and styles to fit what was available and worn everyday. I will try to keep the characters recognizable where I can, but I want to make my pictures realistic and so some elements of the original designs might be altered in the process.
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Time for the second villain in the series, as well as the second HoND character - Frollo!! In Victor Hugo's original book Notre Dame of Paris, Claude Frollo was an actual priest, an archdeacon at Notre Dame. However, in the movie, the archdeacon was a separate character, while Frollo became "Judge Claude Frollo," the Minister of Justice. So when I was doing the research for this picture, I searched for pictures of judges and other officials in 1480s Paris. Interestingly, I learned that while Frollo could have been a minister of justice, he couldn't be the Minister of Justice, because that wasn't any kind of real title at the time. In the Old Regime, prior to the French Revolution, Frollo would have been called the Lord Chancellor of France or the Keeper of the Seals, which is the equivalent of the modern Minister of Justice. Just a fun fact.
Either way, it appears that judges in medieval France didn't dress in any regalia, like they do today, they mostly just wore the same kind of clothing other prestigious men would have worn, a robe and a fur-trimmed overcoat called a "houppelande". You can see the Chancellor wearing the same clothing in these photos (he is in the blue coat and black hat). Medieval Frenchmen didn't often dress in all black (except in the court of Philip the Good) but there were a few exceptions, and I figured Frollo could easily be one of them! The color black was a symbol of Christianity, as it symbolized poverty and piety. It could also symbolize wealth, so I thought it was a good fit for Frollo's hypocrisy. I'm not 100% sure what the inspiration for Frollo's giant triangular hat was, but I'm pretty sure it was based on the "chaperon", an elaborate kind of headgear worn throughout the Middle Ages. By the 1480s it was beginning to drop out of fashion, but it was still being worn, so I thought it was accurate enough considering Frollo is so busy trying to destroy the gypsies he probably doesn't have much time to keep up with the latest trends. Also, Frollo’s bowl-cut hair is more 1430s than 1480s, by that point it had gotten much longer in style.
I added a few additional touches to his outfit based on the accessories that came up frequently in my reference pictures. First of all, the Chancellor and other wealthy men are commonly shown wearing a "girdle purse" that hooks to their belt. Purses were carried because medieval garments didn't have pockets, so they had to have somewhere to put items like a book of hours, seals for stamping documents, or wax tablet and stylus, as explained here: cottesimple.com/articles/aumon… . They could also hold some money for giving alms to the poor (not that Frollo probably gave alms very often!). Over his arm, Frollo is holding his "paternoster", the medieval form of the Catholic rosary. I didn't draw him praying with it because I wanted it to look kind of fake, like he is just wearing it to be seen. For a wealthy man, the paternoster was kind of like a piece of jewelry, and could be made from semiprecious stones like coral and jet. And of course I couldn't forget Frollo's fancy rings, although I can tell you that big gumball-shaped rings were never accurate for any point in history, lol.
I hope you liked this picture! Up next is Wendy Darling from Peter Pan.
As I've said before elsewhere, from an artistic standpoint, I'm not at all bothered by the animated designs of the characters in Disney and Dreamworks films. They weren't documentaries after all so in most cases they didn't need to be accurate, and in animation in particular, it is more important to convey character and style in the designs. I am not trying to "fix" anything because I don't think there is anything to fix! That being said, it can still be fun to learn how your favorite characters might have looked if they had existed in real life.
For my series, I am trying to be as accurate as I possibly can. I'm taking the country of origin, the social class, the culture, and the specific decade into mind (instead of just a general sweep of multiple decades), and also adapting the colors and styles to fit what was available and worn everyday. I will try to keep the characters recognizable where I can, but I want to make my pictures realistic and so some elements of the original designs might be altered in the process.
---
Time for the second villain in the series, as well as the second HoND character - Frollo!! In Victor Hugo's original book Notre Dame of Paris, Claude Frollo was an actual priest, an archdeacon at Notre Dame. However, in the movie, the archdeacon was a separate character, while Frollo became "Judge Claude Frollo," the Minister of Justice. So when I was doing the research for this picture, I searched for pictures of judges and other officials in 1480s Paris. Interestingly, I learned that while Frollo could have been a minister of justice, he couldn't be the Minister of Justice, because that wasn't any kind of real title at the time. In the Old Regime, prior to the French Revolution, Frollo would have been called the Lord Chancellor of France or the Keeper of the Seals, which is the equivalent of the modern Minister of Justice. Just a fun fact.
Either way, it appears that judges in medieval France didn't dress in any regalia, like they do today, they mostly just wore the same kind of clothing other prestigious men would have worn, a robe and a fur-trimmed overcoat called a "houppelande". You can see the Chancellor wearing the same clothing in these photos (he is in the blue coat and black hat). Medieval Frenchmen didn't often dress in all black (except in the court of Philip the Good) but there were a few exceptions, and I figured Frollo could easily be one of them! The color black was a symbol of Christianity, as it symbolized poverty and piety. It could also symbolize wealth, so I thought it was a good fit for Frollo's hypocrisy.
I'm not 100% sure what the inspiration for Frollo's giant triangular hat was, but I'm pretty sure it was based on the "chaperon", an elaborate kind of headgear worn throughout the Middle Ages. By the 1480s it was beginning to drop out of fashion, but it was still being worn, so I thought it was accurate enough considering Frollo is so busy trying to destroy the gypsies he probably doesn't have much time to keep up with the latest trends. Also, Frollo’s bowl-cut hair is more 1430s than 1480s, by that point it had gotten much longer in style.I added a few additional touches to his outfit based on the accessories that came up frequently in my reference pictures. First of all, the Chancellor and other wealthy men are commonly shown wearing a "girdle purse" that hooks to their belt. Purses were carried because medieval garments didn't have pockets, so they had to have somewhere to put items like a book of hours, seals for stamping documents, or wax tablet and stylus, as explained here: cottesimple.com/articles/aumon… . They could also hold some money for giving alms to the poor (not that Frollo probably gave alms very often!). Over his arm, Frollo is holding his "paternoster", the medieval form of the Catholic rosary. I didn't draw him praying with it because I wanted it to look kind of fake, like he is just wearing it to be seen. For a wealthy man, the paternoster was kind of like a piece of jewelry, and could be made from semiprecious stones like coral and jet. And of course I couldn't forget Frollo's fancy rings, although I can tell you that big gumball-shaped rings were never accurate for any point in history, lol.
I hope you liked this picture! Up next is Wendy Darling from Peter Pan.
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"Wearing it to be seen." Literally violates Jesus's warning about showing off your piety for the sake of views and not out of sincere conviction, LOL.