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illuminators’ matErials and tEchniquEs
cated with mosaic gold towards the end of the century (pl. 13b). Draperies painted
with yellow earth or organic pink are modelled with a light blue mixture of ultra-
marine and lead white (pls. 13c, d). Similar contrasts are achieved in the Breslau
Psalter with ultramarine over organic pink fabrics or a pink mixture of vermilion
and lead white over purple tunics.50 In Isabelle’s Psalter-Hours lead white, red lead
and organic russet red robes are shaded with dark indigo folds (pl. 7a).
Silk-shot fabrics aside, thirteenth-century artists evoked the appearance of luxu-
ry fabrics by glazing precious metals.
Metals
Among the most experimental treatments of metals in thirteenth-century manu-
scripts is the modelling of gold with organic glazes to simulate the effects of cloths
of gold. Familiar in painting and illumination of the 1300s, this technique appears
as early as the 1260s in the Lambeth Apocalypse.51 Gold robes and altar cloths are
shaded and patterned with glazes that range in hue from pink to brown (pls. 14a,
b). The pink glazes were red dyes (kermes or lac); an ink wash was probably added
in brown folds.
Master Honoré’s work showcases another innovative technique: rinceaux motifs
painted in shell gold over a background of burnished gold leaf (pl. 14c). The shell
gold was mixed with an organic material, probably a binder, and an iron-containing
pigment, likely earth or ochre.52 The warm glow of the rinceaux, once more intense,
would have contrasted with the cool tonality imparted to the gold leaf ground by
the dark base beneath. This grey base contains gypsum, lead white and possibly in-
digo or carbon black in one of the miniatures analysed (MS 192), while in the other
(MS 368) it is coloured with azurite. Master Honoré also employed shell silver for
murder tools – Cain’s shovel (MS 192) and Judith’s dagger (MS 368, pl. 10).
The versatile use of metals in a Liège Psalter of the 1280s and its style of illumi-
nation hint at training in metalwork, hardly surprising in the Mosan region.53 The
burnished gold leaf is laid over a black bole containing a copper-based pigment.
The corner motifs are painted with shell gold, their matt finish contrasting with the
burnished gold grounds. The gold hybrids and foliage in the frames are also gold
leaf, this time applied over a pink bole containing red earth (pl. 14d). They are set
against grounds of silver leaf. The gold-silver contrast and the various boles reveal
the sensitivity of thirteenth-century artists to the subtle differences effected in me-
tals by their proximity and preparation grounds.
Red bole in shades ranging from orange to salmon pink was the common ground
for gold leaf in manuscripts produced south and north of the Alps. It was also
used for silver. In the Peterborough Psalter both gold and silver leaf were laid over
red earth. In the Lambeth Apocalypse yellow earth features beneath silver (pl. 14e)
50 Panayotova / Morgan / Ricciardi, Breslau Psalter (cit. n. 30), pp. 76, 259‒260, ills. 6a‒b.
51 See n. 11; Panayotova, Colour (cit. n. 4), no. 59.
52 A red dye may have been used too. Some of the rinceaux motifs in the parent manuscript
(The British Library, Add. MS 54180, fol. 107r) preserve a dark red colour.
53 See n. 22; Panayotova, Colour (cit. n. 4), no. 42.
Europäische Bild- und Buchkultur im 13. Jahrhundert
- Titel
- Europäische Bild- und Buchkultur im 13. Jahrhundert
- Autor
- Christine Beier
- Herausgeber
- Michaela Schuller-Juckes
- Verlag
- Böhlau Verlag
- Ort
- Wien
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- deutsch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-21193-8
- Abmessungen
- 18.5 x 27.8 cm
- Seiten
- 290
- Kategorien
- Geschichte Chroniken