Seite - 109 - in Europäische Bild- und Buchkultur im 13. Jahrhundert

109 EncountErs in Books Deviations from underdrawings are not unusual as such – they can often be seen in French book painting.33 Typically, the modifications are only small; in cases of more significant alterations, the involvement of different artists or a departure from the original scheme can be suspected. Yet in the case of the Graz manuscript we are dealing with more than just a plan change. The Italians’ interactions with the northern French forms lead to a stylistic transformation, which gives the miniatu- res – with their Mediterranean shells and northern French core – a highly specific, unparalleled appearance.34 So, who were the two Italian artists responsible for this summary but none- theless aesthetic interpretation of the precise underdrawings from their northern colleague? As was the case with the northern French master, comparative material casts light on the artistic milieu in which they were active. The closest parallels can be found in the miniatures of a Liber Extra of Gregory IX in Munich, which Ulrike Bauer-Eberhardt attributed to Bologna in the first quarter of the fourteenth century (pl. 11a–b).35 Similarities are immediately evident in colouring and painting technique – with colour applied in thin, even layers, while folds and contours are executed with darker tones of local colour or sometimes with white or black lining. Striking analogies can also be seen in the near-identical dragons in pink, blue and orange-red sprouting up from tendrils, or in the sharp, bent stems that give way to a spreading leaf with a deep v-shaped cutting (pl. 12a–c). I could go on – for instance, with reference to the blue backgrounds and their white threading with identical pearl- and leaf-formations (pl. 12d–e), or to facial features such as the straight or slightly bent noses, full lips, and large eyes with black contours that are often left open on one side (compare pl. 6b with pl. 11a–b). It should also be stressed that the Munich and Graz codices are not the only surviving works that connect to these artists. Further, closely related Italian codices can be added to form an extended group: a Galen manuscript in Cesena (pl. 11c–d); two medical codices in Florence 33 Examples can be found in: Amiens, Bibliothèque municipale, Ms. 359, e. g. fols. 9r, 9v, 102v, 183v, 256v (France, late 13th century); Amiens, Bibliothèque municipale, Ms. 355, e. g. fols. 1r, 237v, 314v, 331r (South France, around 1300); St. Florian, Monastery Library, Cod. III 2, e. g. fols. 119r, 138r, 149r (France, around 1285). 34 A similar case can be seen in the Winchester Bible (Winchester Cathedral Library, Ms. 17, and a single leaf in: The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M. 619), which was decorated ca. 1160–90, probably in two campaigns under several book painters working in different styles. As part of this process, the Master of the Genesis Initial and Master of the Amalekite (ca. 1170‒90) painted over the earlier underdrawings of ca. 1160 from the Master of the Leaping Figures, and subjected them to a stylistic transformation; see Walter Oakeshott: The Artists of the Winchester Bible. London 1945, pp. 13‒14, esp. pl. XX‒XXV, and Nigel J. Morgan: Winchester Bible, in: Oxford Art Online. 35 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 4 (Gregory IX, Liber Extra, with glosses); for this manuscript, see Ulrike Bauer-Eberhardt: Die illuminierten Handschriften ita- lienischer Herkunft in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (Vom 10. bis zur Mitte des 14. Jahrhunderts). 2 vols., Wiesbaden 2011 (Katalog der illuminierten Handschriften der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek in München, Vol. 6), pp. 190‒192, cat. no. 184, figs. 148‒150. ‒ Contrary to Alison Stones’ assumption, there are no close analogies between these Graz paintings and the southern French miniatures of the Brussels manuscript. See Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 21190 (2r, pl. 1c, 96r, pl. 1d, 220r und 231v); Stones, Gothic Manuscripts I/1 (cit. n. 2), p. 78 and II/1 (cit. n. 2), pp. 234‒235, cat. no. VII‒35, figs. 467, 468, 470, 472. pl. 9a–b: see pl. 1b and 6a, details for fols. 5r (a), 71r (b)