ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS OF THE TEUTONIC SCHOOL AFTER THE TENTH CENTURY.
_German MSS. of the XIth century._
Though in the main the eleventh century was a period of artistic decadence,
mentioned above as having succeeded the brilliant Carolingian period (see
page 78), yet we find that in certain places in Germany there was a very
distinct beginning of artistic revival, especially in the illumination of
manuscripts, about the middle of the eleventh century and even earlier. A
school of magnificently decorative art began then to be developed, and
though the drawing of the human figure was still weak, yet effects of the
noblest decorative character were produced by manuscript illuminators,
foreshadowing that marvellous climax of manuscript art which was reached in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
_Missal of Henry II._
Fig. 29 shows a sumptuously decorative page from an eleventh century
manuscript _Missal_ which was executed for the Emperor Henry II. (now in
the Munich library). On a brilliant diapered background in gold, red and
blue, a standing figure of the Emperor is crowned by Christ, who sits
within a _vesica_ aureole. The Emperor receives from two angels the great
Cross Standard of the Empire and a sword. His arms are supported by a saint
on each side, Saints Ulrich and Emmeram. The whole page is a superb piece
of decoration, and is specially interesting because illuminations of this
type were evidently used by the earliest painters of stained glass windows
to supply them with designs.
[Illustration: Fig. 29. A page from the _Missal_ of the Emperor Henry II.]
Fig. 30 illustrates a stained glass figure of King David, one of five
lancet-windows from the Cathedral of Augsburg, executed about 1065, when
the Church was consecrated, and probably about the oldest existing example
of a figure in stained glass. The manuscript-like type of the design is
very evident.
[Illustration: Fig. 30. Figure of King David from a stained glass window in
the Cathedral of Augsburg, dating from 1065.]
_Gospels of the XIth century._
Fig. 31 is from a magnificently decorated book of the _Gospels_, executed
in the eleventh century for Uota, Abbess of the convent of Niedermünster,
at Ratisbon, in the reign of the Emperor Henry II. The whole page is a
superbly decorative composition; in the centre is a Crucifixion with
figures of Life and Death at the foot of the cross. In the lower angles are
minute paintings of the Rent Veil of the Temple, and the opened sepulchres;
above, at the sides, are symbolical figures of the Church and the
Synagogue, or Grace and Law. At the upper angles are the Sun and Moon
veiling their faces before the Passion of Christ. Graceful scroll foliage,
of the Oriental textile type, fills in the spandrels.
[Illustration: Fig. 31. Miniature from an eleventh century manuscript of
the _Gospels_, by a German illuminator.]
_Revival of art._
In the twelfth century the revival of manuscript art in Germany progressed
with great rapidity, and an immense number of magnificently illuminated
manuscripts were produced, especially in the chief Benedictine Monasteries,
which had always been the principal homes of learning and the chief centres
of the illuminator's art in Germany as in other European countries[163].
_Grotesque forms._
Frederic I. (Barbarossa), b. 1121-d. 1190, imitated the example of Charles
the Great in his patronage of art and especially of the art of the
illuminator. The manuscripts of his time are remarkable for the richness
and fancy of their twining masses of conventional foliage, mingled with
dragons, monkeys, human forms and monsters of all kinds, designed with
extreme beauty in their strong sweeping curves and coloured with brilliant
and yet harmonious tints in a superbly decorative way. Though the figure
drawing of the illuminators had not reached the perfection which was
attained a century later, yet in point of decorative ornament nothing could
surpass the best German manuscripts of the twelfth century[164]. Figs. 32
and 33 give good examples of the illuminations of this date.
[Illustration: Fig. 32. An initial S, illuminated with foliage of the
Northumbrian type, from a German manuscript of the twelfth century.]
[Illustration: Fig. 33. Miniature of the Annunciation from a German
manuscript of the beginning of the thirteenth century.]
[Illustration: Fig. 34. Page of a Kalendar from a German _Psalter_ of about
1200 A.D.]
Fig. 32 shows a fine initial S formed out of a winged dragon, and
ornamented with conventional foliage of the noblest type. This initial
shows the surviving Celtic or rather Northumbrian influence, which in the
time of Charles the Great had been so important in the German Empire.
_Painting of the Annunciation._
Fig. 33 illustrates a miniature of the Annunciation from a fine manuscript
_Evangeliarium_ or Book of the _Gospels_, which is now in the library at
Carlsruhe. The drawing, though stiff in pose, is noble in style; and the
whole miniature, with its graceful scroll-work background, is of high
decorative value, a prototype of the perfect style of the French and
Anglo-Norman illuminations of the second half of the thirteenth century. In
this painting, as in many other manuscripts of early date, the B. V. Mary
is represented as occupied in spinning with a distaff while the angel
Gabriel approaches to announce the birth of the Messiah.
_Page of a Kalendar._
Fig. 34 shows a very beautifully designed page of the Kalendar at the
beginning of a _Psalter_ executed about the year 1200 for the Landgrave of
Thüringen. On the left is the space in which the scribe inserted the days
of the months, and on the right is a noble and gracefully drawn figure of
Saint Matthew. The interlaced foliage of the initial K is of characteristic
German type.
Fig. 35 shows a very elaborate and graceful initial Y, from another
manuscript of the same date, decorated by a vine-plant from which a youth
is gathering grapes, while a monkey, sitting in the branches, is eating
some of the fruit. The whole design is a masterpiece of decorative beauty,
elaborately worked out in gold and colours.
_Mural paintings._
The fine _mural paintings_ of this date are frequently identical in style
and design with pages from illuminated manuscripts. This is most remarkably
the case with the late twelfth century paintings on the walls and vault of
the church of St Michael at Hildesheim; in which the figures, the
conventional foliage and the general arrangement of the whole have
evidently been copied from manuscript illuminations[165].
_Vault of St Michael's._
Fig. 36 shows a striking example of this, painted about 1186 on the vault
of Saint Michael's. The whole treatment of this grandly decorative painting
is precisely like that of the page of an illuminated book.
[Illustration: Fig. 35. Initial Y from a German manuscript of the beginning
of the thirteenth century, with a most graceful and fanciful combination of
figures and foliage.]
_The Fall of Man._
In the centre is the Fall of Man in a medallion frame with a conventionally
treated tree on each side; all round are smaller paintings, including the
great Rivers of Paradise and the Jordan, two Evangelists and their Symbols,
with a series of medallion busts of Old Testament Saints linked together by
scroll-work of foliage exactly like that in illuminations of contemporary
date.
[Illustration: Fig. 36. Paintings on the vault of the church of St Michael
at Hildesheim, closely resembling in style an illuminated page in a
manuscript.]
The German manuscripts of the thirteenth and fourteenth century are less
purely national in style. The finest illuminations of this date show in
some cases a marked French influence, and, especially during the fourteenth
century, a strong Italian influence was prevalent.
_MS. of the XIVth century._
Fig. 37 gives a good example of this from a manuscript _Passionale_,
written in 1312 for the Abbess of the Convent of St George at Prague. The
figures in this manuscript resemble those in some of the Florentine
illuminated manuscripts of Dante's _Divina Commedia_, executed about 1360
to 1390. The subject of the miniatures shown in fig. 37 is a romantic story
of a bride who was carried off by brigands and flung into a blazing
furnace, from which, by the aid of the B. V. Mary, she was rescued unhurt
by the knight, her husband.
_School of the Van Eycks._
In the fifteenth century an important development of Teutonic art took
place under the Van Eycks and their pupils. In Flanders, especially in
Bruges, Antwerp and Ghent, a very elaborate and beautiful class of
illumination was produced, in some respects different in style from the
Franco-Flemish school of art.
_School of Memlinc._
In the latter part of the century magnificent manuscripts were produced by
illuminators of the Memlinc and Van der Weyden school, such as the famous
Grimani _Breviary_ in the Venetian Ducal library, so-called from its having
been bought from a Sicilian dealer in 1521 for 500 gold ducats by Cardinal
Grimani, a member of the Venetian Grimani family, who were liberal patrons
of this class of art; this sum was quite equal to £2000 in modern value.
The miniatures in this manuscript were ascribed by the dealer to Hans
Memlinc, Gérard of Bruges and Lieven of Antwerp; they were probably by the
two latter illuminators, not by Memlinc, who died in 1494 or 1495.
[Illustration: Fig. 37. Miniatures of Italian style from a German
manuscript of 1312, showing the influence of Florentine art on the
illuminations of southern France.]
_Gérard David._
_The Horae of Prince Albert._
Gérard or Gheeraert of Bruges was a native of Oudewater in Holland; he was
born about the middle of the fifteenth century, and settled in Bruges in
the year 1483, when he became a member of the Guild of Saint John and Saint
Luke, to which all painters and manuscript illuminators were obliged to
belong. Gérard took the surname of David, and became a famous painter of
triptychs and altar-pieces, as well as a skilful illuminator of
manuscripts. Many fine panel-paintings by him still exist in Bruges and
elsewhere[166]. There are also several fine manuscripts with miniatures by
his hand in addition to those in the Grimani _Breviary_. Among these are
two _Books of Hours_ in the collection of the late Baron Anselm Rothschild
of Vienna, and another manuscript _Horae_, which was written and
illuminated for the Cardinal Prince Albert, Elector of Brandenburg, who was
consecrated Archbishop of Magdeburg in the year 1513 at the age of
twenty-three. An interesting monograph, with photographic reproductions of
the miniatures, was written by Mr W. H. J. Weale for Mr F. S. Ellis, the
owner of the manuscript. This lovely manuscript is almost equal in beauty
to the Grimani _Breviary_; it is rather later in date, having been
illuminated between 1514 and 1523.
_The Grimani Breviary._
The miniatures in the sumptuous Grimani _Breviary_, which dates from the
latter years of the fifteenth century, probably about 1496, are very
pictorial in style, with figures which are larger than usual,
proportionally to the size of the page. In some of the miniatures the
figures are shown only in half length, so that the elaborately finished
heads are painted to a large scale. The borders which surround the pages,
enclosing both text and miniatures, are of the Franco-Flemish style, with
realistic flowers, fruit, insects and the like, scattered over a flat gold
ground, as is described above at page 143. The butterflies, dragon-flies,
strawberries, irises and lilies are perfect marvels of naturalistic skill
and beauty.
_The month of April._
_The Grimani Breviary._
Fig. 38 illustrates one of the miniatures in the Grimani _Breviary_; it is
one of the lovely series representing the characteristic occupations of the
twelve months in the Kalendar, which commonly occur as small pictures at
the tops of pages in manuscript Kalendars of the fifteenth century, but in
this exceptionally magnificent book are full page miniatures. The one
copied in fig. 38 represents the month of April, a time for love-making and
out-door parties of pleasure; here illustrated by a most beautiful and
dignified group of ladies and gentlemen, enlivened by the humour of the
scene in the left-hand corner, with a little dog barking jealously at
another pet dog which is being petted on a lady's lap.
[Illustration: Fig. 38. Miniature symbolizing the month of April from the
Kalendar of the Grimani _Breviary_, executed about 1496.]
The background, with trees and Cathedral spires like those of Antwerp or
Malines, is specially beautiful and highly finished.
Though marvels of minute and beautiful workmanship these late Teutonic
manuscripts belong to a period of decadence. As has already been remarked,
neither in poetic feeling nor in decorative value do they approach the
masterpieces of French art during the fourteenth century.
_Horae of King René._
Fig. 39 shows a page from a _Book of Hours_ (Paris, _Bibl. Nat. Lat._ 10,
532) which was illuminated for King René II. of Lorraine (1473 to 1508).
The figure of the Virgin shows the influence of Italian art, which about
this time, 1490, was largely modifying and adding grace to the paintings of
Flanders.
The border, with lupines or vetch-plant realistically painted on a gold
ground, is a good typical specimen of the style.
_Horae of Anne of Brittany._
The famous _Prayer-book of Anne of Brittany_, painted about 1500, after her
second marriage to Louis XII., is a work of the same magnificent style,
with an immense variety of the most exquisitely painted fruits and flowers
treated with the most minute realism. It is now in the Paris library[167].
Fig. 40 gives a page from a magnificent _Book of Hours_ in the Imperial
Library of Vienna (no. 1857); the miniatures in which are of the finest
Teutonic type, in some cases suggesting the school of Van der Weyden, and
in others that of Hans Memlinc. The conventional scroll-work of foliage
with long serrated leaves in the border is very characteristic of the
German and Dutch manuscripts of the fifteenth century.
[Illustration: Fig. 39. A page from the _Book of Hours_ of King René,
painted about 1480.]
[Illustration: Fig. 40. A page from a _Book of Hours_ at Vienna, of the
finest Flemish style.]
_Technical methods._
In some cases this foliage is painted with fluid gold; the high lights
being touched in with white, and the shadows with a _grisaille_ blue.
Another beautiful style of decoration in manuscripts of this class has
conventional flower forms painted in transparent lake with white lights
over a sheet of burnished gold. The skilful use of gold both in the pigment
form, and in leaf on a raised enamel-like ground, is specially
characteristic of German and Dutch manuscripts of the fifteenth century. In
some manuscripts very beautiful borders are executed in delicate
scroll-work with fine lines and dots, all of burnished gold, the effect of
which is very magnificent.
The borders and long marginal ornaments, which grow out of the large
illuminated initials, are often diversified with figures of a naturalistic
or grotesque type, devised with greater fancy and variety than the similar
figures of the same sort which occur in so many French manuscripts.
_MS. of the Emperor Wenzel._
Fig. 41 shows a beautiful example of this, which dates from the last years
of the fourteenth century, c. 1390. It is an ornament at the foot of one of
the pages in a manuscript which was illuminated for the Emperor Wenzel of
Bohemia. Two scenes, a prisoner in the stocks, and a man being bathed by
two attendant girls, are placed in the centre of the grand sweeping lines
of foliage. The backgrounds with their delicate scroll-work and diaper
patterns are imitated from those in the fine French and Anglo-Norman
manuscripts of the earlier part of the fourteenth century.
In some marginal illuminations, miniature figures of knights jousting are
introduced charging through the scrolls of foliage; and Angels gracefully
drawn are very frequently introduced into the elaborate borders, as is
shown on fig. 40.
_Grotesque figures._
Grotesque figures were great favourites with the Teutonic illuminators;
devils and monkeys, pigmies fighting cranes, or strange monsters made up
(like the Roman _grylli_) of several animals and birds united, are of
frequent occurrence in German and Dutch illuminated manuscripts, more
especially in _Books of Hours_, where such fancies were probably a relief
from the gravity of the text both to the illuminator and to the owner of
the book: see below, page 208.
[Illustration: Fig. 41. Marginal illumination of very beautiful and refined
style from a manuscript executed for King Wenzel of Bohemia about the year
1390.]
[Illustration: Fig. 42. Miniature of Duke Baldwin, painted about the year
1450 by an illuminator of the school of the Van Eycks of Bruges.]
The finest Teutonic manuscripts of the fifteenth century show in their
miniatures the influence of the Van Eycks; as is also the case with many of
the manuscripts which fall rather under the head of the Franco-Flemish than
the Teutonic school[168].
_School of the Van Eycks._
Fig. 42 gives a fine example of a miniature by an illuminator who must have
been an actual pupil of the Van Eycks. It is taken from a fragment of a
manuscript of the _Croniques de Jherusalem_, now in the Imperial library of
Vienna (no. 2533). It represents Duke Baudouin (or Baldwin), who was
crowned King of Jerusalem, in the guise of a fifteenth century German
knight, under a graceful Gothic canopy of characteristically German style.
The date of this sumptuous manuscript is about 1450.
_Influence on painting generally._
As is remarked below with regard to Italian art, it is interesting to
observe the strong influence that miniature painting in manuscripts had
upon the larger pictures of Teutonic artists. In many cases the German and
Flemish painters of altar-pieces were also illuminators of manuscripts,
like Liberale of Verona and Girolamo dai libri, who are mentioned below,
see page 197[169].
And even without this reason for similarity, it was not uncommon for the
painter of a retable to borrow his composition and general decorative
scheme from an illuminated manuscript by some skilful artist.
Fig. 43 shows a good example of this, the central panel of a retable dated
1473, in the church of St Martin at Colmar, which is almost certainly the
work of Martin Schoen or Schöngauer.
_The Cologne School._
In the art of the Cologne School more especially, the relationship between
the panel paintings and the miniature illuminations of manuscripts is very
close, both in the general decorative schemes and also in the extreme
minuteness and delicacy of the larger paintings.
[Illustration: Fig. 43. Retable painted by Martin Schöngauer, in the style
of a manuscript illumination.]
[Illustration: Fig. 44. All altar-piece of the Cologne school, showing the
influence of manuscript illumination on the painters of panel-pictures,
especially retables.]
_Retable at Cologne._
Fig. 44 shows a beautiful example of this, a small panel, now in the
Archiepiscopal Museum at Cologne, representing the Virgin and Child seated
on a flowery sward with a trellis covered with roses as a background, and
lovely child-angels playing on musical instruments all round. The whole
panel is a perfect gem of brilliantly decorative art of the purest and most
perfect kind, quite free from the too pictorial realism which at this time,
about 1460, was growing rapidly among the miniaturists of France and the
Netherlands.
Half a century later, in the early part of the sixteenth century, the same
tendency to paint pictures like a magnified manuscript illumination is
frequently to be observed.
_Triptych by the elder Holbein._
Fig. 45 represents one wing of an altar triptych by Hans Holbein the elder,
painted about the year 1514. This beautiful figure of Saint Elizabeth of
Hungary is interesting as showing the influence of Italian art, which at
that time was widely spread throughout Germany and France; it also, in its
minutely delicate touch and in the grotesque ornaments at the top and
bottom, shows a strong tendency to use the forms and methods of the
manuscript illuminator.
_Illuminations by A. Dürer._
Manuscripts of the Teutonic school, which are known to be by the hand of a
famous painter, are of rare occurrence; there is therefore special interest
in the book of which one of the border-illuminations is illustrated in fig.
46. The text itself (a book of prayers) is _printed_ on vellum, but
forty-five of the pages are decorated with borders drawn by the masterly
hand of Albert Dürer in red, green and violet ink, a method possibly
suggested to Dürer by the sight of one of the tenth or eleventh century
manuscripts which were illuminated with outline drawings in inks of these
three colours. This beautiful prayer-book was decorated by Albert Dürer in
1515 for the Emperor Maximilian; it is now in the Munich Library[170].
There is much that is grotesque and humorous introduced among the finely
designed scroll-work of these borders; and their firm strong touch, united
to much fanciful grace of form in the varied forms of leafage, makes the
whole well worthy of its illuminator's artistic fame.
[Illustration: Fig. 45. Wing of a triptych, with a figure of St Elizabeth
of Hungary, painted by the elder Hans Holbein; this illustrates the
influence on painting of the styles of manuscript illumination at the
beginning of the sixteenth century.]
[Illustration: Fig. 46. Illuminated border drawn by Albert Dürer in 1515.]
The border illustrated here has, at the foot, a spirited group of
musicians, and a beautiful background, with a river and castle-crowned
hill, such as Dürer loved to introduce into paintings and engravings of all
kinds. On one of the kettledrums in the foreground are the initials of the
artist and the date 1515.
_Dutch fifteenth century manuscripts._
In the main the manuscripts of Holland resemble those either of the other
contemporary Teutonic or of the Franco-Flemish schools.
In the fifteenth century an enormous number of _Books of Hours_ and other
works for private devotion, such as "the Book of Christian Belief," _Den
Boeck van den Kersten Ghelove_, and others of the same class, were produced
in Holland. Many of these are written in the vulgar tongue.
_Dutch methods of ornament._
The miniature illuminations are on the whole inferior to the exquisite
paintings in Flemish manuscripts; but they are usually very decorative in
treatment, of a simple, homely style, which is not without charm. The
decorative initials are often very large and beautiful, in some cases
occupying a large proportion of the page; and the borders, which grow
gracefully out of these large capitals, are magnificently rich both in
design and execution. Gold is used profusely and with remarkable taste and
skill in these Dutch illuminations, which frequently have a combination of
_mat_, fluid gold applied with the brush over a ground of brilliantly
burnished gold leaf. Very beautiful initials are also formed by painting
with a transparent lake red over a ground of burnished gold, which shines
through the red pigment, thus producing a brilliantly decorative effect.
_Realistic details._
The miniatures of the fifteenth century Dutch manuscripts are noticeable
for their realistic architectural details, with interiors of rooms full of
elaborate furniture, bookshelves, sideboards covered with silver plate, or
the humbler jugs and dishes of pewter, with countless other kinds of
fittings and furniture.
Dutch miniatures with ecclesiastical scenes frequently have elaborately
rendered interior views of churches, which are usually very interesting
from their illustration of the choir and altar fittings, the retables, the
"riddles" or altar-curtains, the tabernacles for the Reserved Host, and
many other valuable records of mediaeval church furniture and ritual[171].
One very delicate and beautiful kind of illumination, which occurs in many
of the best Dutch manuscripts, is by no means peculiar to Holland, but is
also found in many English, French, Flemish and Italian manuscripts.
_Skilful use of the pen._
This consists of capitals, often of large size, decorated with rich
ornamentation executed wholly with thin lines of blue and red drawn with a
very fine pen. The firmness of touch and spirited quality of this pen
illumination is often very remarkable, showing the most perfect training of
hand and eye on the part of the illuminator. Though not as gorgeous as the
usual initials painted with gold and colours, this line ornament is
sometimes of the richest and most delicate quality that can be imagined. In
some cases a purple or violet ink is used, as well as the brighter blue and
red, especially in Italian manuscripts.
The form of the pen ornaments used in this class of illumination is very
much the same in all the chief European classes of manuscripts; a somewhat
exceptional circumstance, since, as a rule, each country has its own
peculiar types of decoration.
Illuminations in printed books.
This beautiful pen-work reached its highest point of perfection in the
first half of the fifteenth century. It is frequently used for the
illuminated initials in the early printed books of Germany. Books printed
at Strasburg by Mentelin, about 1460 to 1468, are often decorated with very
elaborate and skilfully drawn ornament of this type; in many cases probably
by Mentelin's own hand, since he was a skilful manuscript illuminator
before he began to practise the art of printing[172].
The printed books of Koburger of Nuremberg are also remarkable for the
beauty of their illuminations, both in the blue and red pen-work and also
with painted ornaments in gold and colour.