WorkDoc - The Novice (Patreon)

In this series, we follow the adventures of a young novice on his way to a secluded abbey. The strange events bring his monastic calling into doubt. This is the fifth in a series of Gothic winter tales.

Adso

The character and the settings for this story were mainly inspired by the film The Name of the Rose, based on the novel of the same title by Umberto Eco. In this historical mystery, a friar and a novice investigate a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey. The scary setting with its grotesque characters has always fascinated me, and it has all the elements in place for a Gothic winter tale of my own.

This story focuses on the novice Adso of Melk and his inner struggle between sainthood and sin. In the novel, he is described as young and handsome and inquisitive. He loves reading and studying and is fascinated by the mysteries of the abbey’s library. But other mysteries await him in this decaying and dying order of old men. For, when night falls, darker forces come to life in the depths of its deepest dungeons.

The Ruins

The adventure starts with the novice’s journey to the abbey on a dark and cold winter day.

As many of you have noticed, the scenes were mostly inspired by the works of Caspar David Friedrich, a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, best known for his allegorical landscapes, with Gothic ruins in morning mists or silhouetted against ominous dark skies.

For the ruins, I used a DAZ 3D model of a Gothic cathedral called Ancient Legends by Linday. It’s an extensive model – probably a 3d scan - with all the characteristic architectural elements such as pointed arches, ribbed vaults, ravaged, lancet windows, flying buttresses, and ornate decorative chimeras and gargoyles. For close-ups of the scene and the construction of the chapel, I added some other 3d scanned medieval sculptures from Scan the World.

For the chapel scenes, I focused mostly on the light setting, trying to simulate the atmosphere of the Renaissance paintings (chiaroscuro). The fire creates a strong contrast between light and dark, enhancing the sense of volume and adding mystery to the scene.

The main challenge for this part of the series was the draping of the novice’s clothes and the cover of his bed. For this, I used dForce in DAZ Studio, an engine designed to accurately simulate the physical collisions and interaction of soft materials such as fabrics and hair movements. It has been introduced a few years back and It’s a huge improvement from the previous static clothes. It works well on standard models in basic poses, but a bit less with more complicated scenes, like the novice sitting in bed under a blanket, with his robe pulled up. I had to test that many times before getting any results, eventually compiling the scene from separate parts.

The Abbey

In the novel, the abbey is never named, only described as a Benedictine monastery in Northern Italy. It’s a fictional place but it was probably inspired by the monumental Saint Michael's Abbey in Susa Valley, in Piedmont, Italy. The place is truly breathtaking and in reality, far more spectacular than in any description or depiction. In the beginning, I wanted to base my model of the abbey on the movie set, but after finding out about this abbey, I could not resist starting from there. It’s a place I really want to visit one day, in the meantime, one can have a 3d view of the place here on SketchFab.

The church choir I used for the interior is an actual 3d scan of the choir of the Monasterio de Yuste in Spain. It’s the secluded place where emperor Charles V spent his last day. It was the perfect setting to introduce the novice to the order and to present him to the bishop for a blessing. With a few adjustments and the addition of a few light settings for the characters, the model worked far better than expected. Even at close range, the beautiful details of the woodcarving are well preserved. The mitre and crosier used in the scene are also scans of real historical objects.

The bedroom in which the novice is seduced by the demon is a stripped version of Roguey’s Medieval Fantasy Bedroom. A beautiful and very realistic high-resolution model with many detailed elements and props. The more austere version of this room in my story is probably far from what monks were used to in those days, but I wanted to give the novice some comfort after his long journey, and some space and privacy when he’s being seduced by the well-endowed devil.

The Gates of Hell

While the novice is being seduced by the muscular and well-endowed demon, a group of mysterious black monks descends into the catacombs of the abbey. At the bottom of a long staircase, they reach a large foreboding door, known as the Gates of Hell. For this gate, I used a 3D model of ‘La Porte de l'Enfer‘ by French artist Auguste Rodin.  It’s a colossal bronze sculptural group work that depicts a scene from the Inferno, the first section of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. A theme I’ve obviously used before, although I can’t remember exactly where ;o) I’m sure Harry was involved in some way!

It stands 6 meters high, contains 180 figures, and wights approximately 6 tons. I’ve once seen the original in Paris and knew at once I had to use it one day for one of my projects! There are several versions of the sculpture around the world (Germany, Japan, US), so perhaps you’ll have a chance to see one for yourself. I strongly recommend it, for you really get the sense of standing in front of a gate to an ominous place, the Gates of Hell whispering to you ‘abandon every hope, who enter here’. Who knows what the novice will find behind there in the next chapter?

The Scriptorium, Staircase, and Library

After a long night full of disturbing dreams, the novice goes to work in the abbey’s scriptorium. His aim is to consult some rare manuscripts from the famous library to complete his manuscript on demonic temptations and the fall from grace.

This part of the series is to set the stage for the next chapter, to make the transition from the abbey to the underworld. The inspiration for the scriptorium and staircase comes from the impressive settings of The Name of the Rose.

The multitude of flights of stairs and alleys in the film were based on etchings by Piranesi‘s Carceri from ca. 1750, showing bare, sinister, and almost endless dungeons.

These mysterious illustrations are perfect for the settings of my next chapter as well, and the models for this are currently a work in progress…

Dark Dungeons

Through the Gates of Heel, the novice enters the realm of the demons, the dark dungeons where huge muscular men are tortured and pleased. Are they novices as well, being punished for their worldly sins? The scenes remind me of a series I did in Photoshop, many years back. The huge guys are also models dating from the earlier projects, created for several commissions and my first 3D series. You can find the original series of these Recycled Models in the attachment at the bottom of this post.

Render Test

You can download these images in a file at the bottom of the page.

Models of the Rooms

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• Wallpaper
• WorkDoc
• Gallery
• Add-Ons

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