Page - 249 - in Europäische Bild- und Buchkultur im 13. Jahrhundert

249 illuminators’ matErials and tEchniquEs In the Trinity Apocalypse, a variety of earths and ochres were blended with organic dyes, red lead, vermilion, orpiment, ultramarine, carbon black, lead white, chalk or gypsum to extend the palette with colours ranging from yellow and pink to brown and purple. As well as real mixtures, thirteenth-century artists created optical ones by juxtaposing or layering pigments to be blended in the viewer’s eye. The most ad- vanced examples appear in drapery and flesh tones. Flesh painting – individual choices or evolution? Most manuscripts display two basic flesh-painting techniques that use the bare parchment or lead white for flesh tones. They could be elaborated on with mixtu- res: one of the artists in Isabelle’s Psalter-Hours added a small amount of vermilion to the lead white creating a more natural flesh tone; in St Louis’ Psalter the Saul Master added organic red instead, giving his protagonists pink faces.24 Others com- bined real and optical mixtures. Christ’s flesh in a Parisian miniature of the 1270s 24 Panayotova, Prayer book (cit. n. 15). pl. 3: Christ in Majesty (a) with photomicroscopy details of flesh tones (b) and indi- go-coloured bole (c). Paris, c. 1270–1280. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Marlay cutting Fr. 1