Page - 226 - in The Vienna Genesis - Material analysis and conservation of a Late Antique illuminated manuscript on purple parchment

226 The miniatures of the Vienna Genesis: colour identification and painters’ palettes The green pigment is a mixture of azurite with orpiment. Highlights were applied in orpi- ment or in a mixture of orpiment and lead white. Copper ions have migrated to the other side of the folio, visible by darkening of the parchment. The copper ions have degraded the parchment, like for example on folio 14, page 28. On this folio, the deterioration has led to large losses on the miniature depicting the dream of Joseph (Fig. 28). The mixture of azur- ite with orpiment is visible under the microscope at 10x magnification. The presence of azurite and orpiment was confirmed by XRF through the distinct detection of copper and arsenic. Indigo was added for darker green tones in tree leaves and on the wheat. Indigo and azurite are confirmed by FORS. On the trees, shaded leaves were painted in azurite. Pink highlights on top of the trees were added with a mixture of madder and lead white. As a continuum, painter C also used red lead as red pigment and madder mixed with lead white for pink areas. The way to paint highlights and shades is similar to painters A and B. Pink highlights on trees or stones are specific for artist C. After Jacob’s encounter with the angel at night, the shine of the morning sun turns stones and trees pinkish and reddish (Fig. 29). Violet tones are in accordance with the choice of blue pigment a mixture of azurite, madder and lead white. Similar to painters A and B, painter C also used earth pigments for brown tones. He worked with a broad spectrum of mixtures and shades. As mentioned above it is difficult to differentiate between the earth pigments. For light brown tones, yellow ochre and or- piment seem to have been applied. For red brown, the painter possibly used mixtures of yellow and red ochre with red lead. Dark brown tones were achieved by mixtures with a brown earth pigment. Fig. 29: Miniature on folio 12, page 24, Jacob’s en- counter with the angel. Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0