Page - 248 - in Europäische Bild- und Buchkultur im 13. Jahrhundert

248 stElla panayotoVa to the new developments. To create nuanced shades of the same hue artists emplo- yed it in varying saturations or grades; for instance, ultramarine ash, lapis lazuli’s cheapest grade, offered shades of light blue, grey or violet. They also enriched their palette with mixtures, mobilising technical skill and artistic ingenuity to create real gradations of colour that the perspectivists proposed theoretically. Mixtures and layers Apart from the common addition of lead white to vary a pigment’s tone, binary combinations enriched the palette with other hues, such as green or purple achieved with blue-yellow or blue-red mixtures. In a Parisian Bible of c. 1250‒1270 ultramari- ne was used pure in deep blue areas and mixed with azurite in green-blue passages.18 In the Bird Psalter probably made in the Midlands c. 1285‒1290,19 ultramarine and azurite were juxtaposed or layered on the same page. The more affordable azurite often replaced or adulterated the costly ultramarine. Yet, the profusion of the latter in the Parisian Bible and the Bird Psalter,20 and the distinct hues resulting from its blending or layering with azurite suggest aesthetic aims rather than financial con- cerns behind their combined use in these two volumes. Binary mixtures aside, thirteenth-century artists employed complex ones. They did so to create a range of shades even for hues that could be obtained from one or two common pigments. The black in a Bolognese Bible of c. 1260 is a mixture of earth, red lead, verdigris and bone black.21 In a Liège Psalter of the 1280s grey areas blend azurite, ultramarine, lead white and bone black.22 In Isabelle’s Psalter-Hours grey areas have various combinations of carbon black, earth, indigo, ultramarine, lead white and organic red; brown fabrics contain indigo, red lead, organic red and lead white; purple draperies blend ultramarine, organic red, led white and gypsum, and are shaded with indigo. William de Brailes, documented in Oxford c. 1230‒1260, combined four or more pigments to create nuanced tones of black, brown, tan, red, green or yellow in the leaves he painted for a Psalter c. 1230‒1250.23 In: Panayotova, Colour (cit. n. 4), pp. 304‒315. Optics, Ethics, and Art in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, ed. by Herbert Kessler / Richard Newhauser, Toronto 2018. 18 Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 1060‒1975. Wormald / Giles, Catalogue (cit. n. 13), pp. 597‒601. 19 Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 2‒1954. Widely considered a gift for Margaret of Holland, bride-to-be of Edward I’s son Alphonso who died shortly before the wedding in 1284, the Psalter has also been associated with the wife or daughter of Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn (d.1286/7), Edward I’s Welsh ally. Wormald / Giles, Catalogue (cit. n. 13), pp. 475‒479. Nicholas Rogers: The Original Owner of the Bird Psalter (forthcoming). 20 Ultramarine was used even for their penwork initials and blue script. 21 Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 1056‒1975. A Catalogue of Western Book Illu- mination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges. Part 2, ed. by Nigel Morgan / Stella Panayotova / Suzanne Reynolds, London / Turnhout 2011, no. 165. 22 Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 288. A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges. Part 1, ed. by Nigel Morgan / Stella Panayotova, London / Turnhout 2009, no. 147. 23 Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 330. Nigel Morgan: Leaves from a Psalter by Wil- liam de Brailes, London 2012. See table.