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illuminators’ matErials and tEchniquEs
Mosaic gold in manuscripts
Most of the materials mentioned so far were shared by illuminators and painters
for centuries. The only new material to enter the illuminator’s palette in the 1200s
was mosaic gold. Made of tin, mercury, sulphur and sal ammoniac, it is a yellow
pigment with a sparkle. It was used for aesthetic reasons, not as a cheap substitute
for gold. All of the examples in which we have identified it, from the 1200s to the
1500s, are deluxe manuscripts with large amounts of real gold. Though not as lust-
rous as the precious metal, mosaic gold is easier to apply than gold leaf or shell gold.
Shaded in green, red or brown, it adds to the range of colouristic, textural and light
effects achieved with precious metals.
The earliest use of mosaic gold identified so far is in a copy of Vegetius made c.
1265‒1272 for the future Edward I, predating the earliest known recipe by a century
(pl. 15a).56 In an English Bible of the 1270s the drapery painted with mosaic gold is
shaded with a copper-based green pigment, likely verdigris (pl. 15b).57 Next, mosaic
56 Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS Marlay Add. 1. Scot McKendrick / John Lowden
/ Kathleen Doyle: Royal Manuscripts. The Genius of Illumination. London 2011, no.
125. For the earliest recipe, see Daniel V. Thompson / George H. Hamilton: De Arte Illu-
minandi: the technique of manuscript illumination. An anonymous fourteenth-century
treatise, translated from the Latin of Naples Ms XII.E.27, New Haven 1933, pp. 57‒58.
57 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 49. Panayotova, Colour (cit. n. 4), no. 41. pl. 15: Photomicroscopy details
of mosaic gold in Cambridge,
Corpus Christi College, MS 49,
fol. 93v (b); Fitzwilliam Muse-
um, MS Marlay Add. 1, fol. 86r
(a), MS 2–1954, fol. 1r (c), Ms
McClean 201.11d (d)
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