I've shown you most of the characters in my Byzantine epic tale, but not the girl herself. I made plenty of pictures of her and here she is in monastic habit, visiting a sisterhood in Egypt. In her day, the early 400s AD, Christian monasticism was proliferating but unregulated, without rules such as the later Rule of St. Benedict. There were sisters as well as brothers, usually cloistered and prayerful similar to nuns. Aurelia hides in a convent in Egypt while trying out their way of life.
You'd think I'd base Aurelia on myself but I really didn't look like her. Instead I modeled her on my college chum Jan Sandberg, whose portrait you recently saw on this Blog. Aurelia doesn't stay at the convent very long as her parents and relatives are sending private militiamen to find and capture her so that she can be forced into the marriage she is trying to escape.
Ink and watercolor on sketchbook page, 5" x 5", 1974.
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