Page - 249 - in Europäische Bild- und Buchkultur im 13. Jahrhundert
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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
Europäische Bild- und Buchkultur im 13. Jahrhundert
- Title
- Europäische Bild- und Buchkultur im 13. Jahrhundert
- Author
- Christine Beier
- Editor
- Michaela Schuller-Juckes
- Publisher
- Böhlau Verlag
- Location
- Wien
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- German
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-21193-8
- Size
- 18.5 x 27.8 cm
- Pages
- 290
- Categories
- Geschichte Chroniken