(British Museum. _Royal MS._ 2A. xxii.)]
[Illustration: PLATE III.
LECTIONARY, OF THE USE OF PARIS. LATE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. (British
Museum. Add. M.S. 17,341.)]
But it is not the debased classical decoration alone which marks the
illumination of the Carolingian school. The influence of the Celtic art,
which has been described, imposed itself and combined with it. This
combination was due to the Englishman, Alcuin of York, who became abbot
of the Benedictine house of St Martin of Tours, and who did so much to
aid Charlemagne in the revival of letters. Thus, in the finest examples
of the Carolingian illuminated MSS., Celtic interlaced patterns stand
side by side with the designs of classical origin; and, at the same
time, it is interesting to observe that the older native Merovingian
style of ornament makes its presence felt, now and again, in this or
that detail. But with all the artistic effort bestowed upon it, it must
be conceded that Carolingian illumination, as presented in the MSS., is
not always pleasing. Indeed, it is often coarse and monotonous, and
there is a tendency to conceal inferiority under a dazzling abundance of
gold. The leading idea of the ornament of the great MSS. was splendour.
Gold was used in profusion even in the writing of the text, and silver
also in a minor degree; and the vellum, stained or painted purple,
enhanced the gorgeous effect of the illumination. But undoubtedly the
purer style of the Celtic school balanced and restrained the tendency to
coarseness; and this foreign influence naturally was stronger in some
centres than in others. For example, in the abbey of Saint-Denis, near
Paris, if we may draw conclusions from surviving examples, the Celtic
style was in great favour. Another peculiarity in the decoration of the
Carolingian MSS. is the tendency of the artist to mix his styles, and to
attach details on a small scale, such as delicate sprays and flourishes,
and minute objects, to large-scale initial letters, as though he felt
that grossness required a corrective contrast. The art became more
refined under the immediate successors of Charlemagne, and under Charles
the Bald it culminated. The most famous MSS. of the Carolingian school
are the _Evangeliarium_, written and illuminated by the scribe Godescalc
for Charlemagne in the year 787; the _Sacramentarium_ written for
Drogon, son of Charlemagne and bishop of Metz; the Gospels of the
emperor Lothair, once at Tours; the first Bible of Charles the Bald,
presented by Count Vivien, abbot of St Martin of Tours; the second
Bible, called the Bible of Saint Denis, in Franco-Saxon style; and the
so-called Gospels of Francis II. There are also in the British Museum
(Harleian MS. 2788) an Evangeliarium written in gold and known as the
_Codex aureus_, of this school; and a Bible of Alcuin's recension,
probably executed at Tours in the middle of the 9th century, with
illustrative miniatures and initial letters, but of a less elaborate
degree of ornament.
After this brilliant period decadence sets in; and in the course of the
11th century Frankish illumination sinks to its lowest point, the
miniatures being for the most part coarse and clumsy copies of earlier
models. The colours become harsh, often assuming an unpleasant chalky
appearance.
We have now to trace the development of another kind of book decoration,
quite different from the florid style of gold and colours just now
described, which had a lasting influence on the early art of England,
where it was specially cultivated, and where it developed a character
which at length became distinctively national. This is the style of
outline drawing which fills so large a space in the Anglo-Saxon MSS. of
the 10th and 11th centuries.
Anglo-Saxon.
We have already seen how the Celtic style of ornamentation was
introduced into the north of England. Thence it appears to have spread
rapidly southward. As early as the beginning of the 8th century it was
practised at Canterbury, as is testified by a famous psalter in the
British Museum (Cott. MS. Vespasian A. 1), in which much of the ornament
is of Celtic type. But the same MS. is also witness to the presence of
another influence in English art, that of the classical style of Rome,
certain details of the ornament being of that character and a miniature
in the MS. being altogether of the classical type. With little
hesitation this element may be ascribed to MSS. brought from Rome, in
the first instance by St Augustine, and afterwards by the incoming
missionaries who succeeded him, and deposited in such centres as
Canterbury and Winchester. But this importation of MSS. from Italy was
not confined to the south. We have distinct evidence that they were
brought into northern monasteries, such as those of Jarrow and Wearmouth
and York. Thus the English artists of both south and north were in a
position to take advantage of material from two sources; and they
naturally did so. Thus we find that mingling of the Celtic and classical
styles just noticed. In this way, early grown accustomed to take
classical models for their drawings, the Anglo-Saxon artists were the
more susceptible to the later development of the classical style of
outline drawing which was next introduced into the country from the
continent. The earliest MS. in which this style of drawing is exhibited
in fullest detail is the volume known as the _Utrecht Psalter_, once in
the Cottonian Library, in which the text of the psalms is profusely
illustrated with minute pen-sketches remarkably full of detail. The
period of the MS. is about the year 800; and it was probably executed in
the north or north-east of France. But the special interest of the
drawings is that they are evidently copies of much older models and
provide a valuable link with the late classical art of some two or three
centuries earlier. The work is very sketchy, the movement of the
draperies indicated by lightly scribbled strokes of the pen, the limbs
elongated, the shoulders humped--all characteristic features which are
repeated in the later Anglo-Saxon work. The drawings of the _Utrecht
Psalter_ are clearly typical examples of a style which, founded on Roman
models, must at one time have been widely practised in western Europe.
For instance, there are traces of it in such a centre as St Gallen in
Switzerland, and there are extant MSS. of the _Psychomachia_ of
Prudentius (a favourite work) with drawings of this character which were
executed in France in the 10th century. But the style does not appear to
have taken much hold on the fancy of continental artists. It was
reserved for England to welcome and to make this free drawing her own,
and to develop it especially in the great school of illumination at
Winchester. Introduced probably in such examples as the _Utrecht
Psalter_ and copies of the _Psychomachia_, this free drawing of
semi-classical origin had fully established itself here in the course of
the 10th century, and by that time had assumed a national character. A
fair number of MSS. of the 10th and 11th centuries which issued from the
Winchester school are still to be seen among the collections of the
British museum, in most of which the light style of outline drawing with
the characteristic fluttering drapery is more or less predominant,
although body colours were also freely employed in many examples. But
the most elaborate specimen of Anglo-Saxon illumination of the 10th
century is one belonging to the duke of Devonshire: the _Benedictional_
of the see of Winchester, executed under the direction of Æthelwold,
bishop from 963 to 984, which contains a series of miniatures, in this
instance in body colours, but drawn in the unmistakable style of the new
school. In the scheme of decoration, however, another influence is at
work. As England had sent forth its early Celtic designs to modify the
art of the Frankish empire, so the Carolingian style of ornament now, in
its turn, makes its way into this country, and appears in the purely
ornamental details of the Anglo-Saxon illuminated volumes. The frames of
the miniatures are chiefly composed of conventional foliage, and the
same architectural leaf-mouldings of classical origin which are seen in
the foreign MSS. are here repeated. Profuse gilding also, which is
frequently applied, sometimes with silver, is due to foreign influence.
But this character of decoration soon assumed a national cast. Under the
hands of the Anglo-Saxon artist the conventional foliage flourished with
greater freedom; and the colouring which he applied was generally softer
and more harmonious than that which was employed abroad. Examples of
outline drawing of the best type exist in the Harleian _Psalter_ (No.
2904), of the same period as the Æthelwold _Benedictional_; in the
register of New Minster (Stowe MS. 944), A.D. 1016-1020; and in the
Prudentius (Cotton MS. Cleop. C. viii.), executed early in the 11th
century.
Norman.
With the Norman Conquest naturally great changes were effected in the
illumination of English MSS., as in other branches of art; no doubt to
the ultimate improvement of English draughtsmanship. Left to itself the
outline drawing of the Anglo-Saxons, inclining as it did to affectation,
would probably have sunk into fantastic exaggeration and feebleness.
Brought more directly under Norman domination it resulted in the fine,
bold freehand style which is conspicuous in MSS. executed in England in
the next three centuries. Then we come to the period when the art of
illumination is brought into line in the countries of western Europe, in
England and in France, in Flanders and in western Germany, by the
splendid outburst of artistic sentiment of the 12th century. This
century is the period of large folios providing ample space in their
pages for the magnificent initial letters drawn on a grand scale which
are to be seen in the great Bibles and psalters of the time. The leading
feature is a wealth of foliage with twining and interlacing branches,
among which human and animal life is freely introduced, the whole design
being thrown into relief by brilliant colours and a generous use of
gold. The figure drawing both in miniatures and initials is stiff, the
figures elongated but bold, and with sweeping lines in the draperies;
and a tendency to represent the latter clinging closely to the limbs is
a legacy of the tradition of the later classical style. In England the
school of Winchester appears to have maintained the same excellence
after the Norman Conquest as before it. A remarkable MS. (Cotton, Nero
C. iv.), a psalter of about the year 1160, with a series of fine
miniatures, is a good example of its work. In France, Flanders and
western Germany we find the same energy in producing boldly ornamented
volumes, as in England; a certain heaviness of outline distinguishing
the work of the Flemish and German artists from that of the English and
French schools. Such MSS. as the Stavelot Bible (Brit. Mus., Add. MS.
28,107), of the close of the 11th century, the Bible of Floreffe (Add.
MS. 17,737-17,738), of about the year 1160, and the Worms Bible (Harl.
MS. 2803-2804), of the same time, are fine specimens of Flemish and
German work.
13th Century.
It is towards the close of the 12th century and in the beginning of the
13th century that the character of illumination settles down on more
conventional lines. Hitherto gold had been applied in a liquid state;
now it is laid on in leaf and is highly burnished, a process which lends
a brilliant effect to initial and miniature. A great change passes over
the face of things. The large, bold style gives place to the minute.
Volumes decrease in size; the texts are written in close-packed
characters; the large and simple is superseded by the small and
decorated. The period has arrived when book ornamentation becomes more
settled and accurately defined within limits, and starts on the course
of regulated expansion which was to run for three hundred years down to
the close of the 15th century. In the 13th century the historiated or
miniature initial, that is, the initial letter containing within its
limits a miniature illustrating the subject of the immediate text, is
established as a favourite detail of ornamentation, in addition to the
regular independent miniature. Such initials form a prominent feature in
the pretty little Bibles which were produced in hundreds at this period.
But a still more interesting subject for study is the development of the
border which was to have such a luxuriant growth in the 13th, 14th and
15th centuries. Commencing as a pendant from the initial, with terminal
in form of bud or cusp, it gradually pushes its way along the margins,
unfolding foliage as it proceeds, and in course of time envelopes the
entire page of text in a complete framework formulating in each country
a national style.
In the miniatures of the 13th century the art of England, of France, and
of the Low Countries runs very much in one channel. The Flemish art,
however, may be generally distinguished from the others by the heavier
outline already noticed. The French art is exquisitely exact and
clean-cut, and in its best examples it is the perfection of
neat-handedness. English art is perhaps less exact, but makes up for any
deficiency in this direction by its gracefulness. However, there is
often little to choose between the productions of the three countries,
and they are hard to distinguish. As an aid for such distinction, among
small differences, we may notice the copper tone of French gold
contrasting with the purer metal in English MSS.; and the favour shown
to deep ultramarine appears to mark French work. But, besides actual
illuminated miniature painting, there is also a not inconsiderable
amount of freehand illustrative drawing in the MSS. In this particular
the English artist maintains the excellence of work which distinguished
his ancestors. Such series of delicate drawings, slightly tinted, as
those to be seen in the famous Queen Mary's Psalter (Royal MS. 2 B.
vii.), and in other MSS. of the 13th and 14th centuries in the British
Museum, are not surpassed by any similar drawings done at the same
period in any other country. In the 13th century also comes into vogue
the highly decorated diaper-work, generally of lozenges or chequered
patterns in brilliant colours and brightly burnished gold. These fill
the backgrounds of miniatures and initials, together with other forms of
decoration, such as sheets of gold stippled or surface-drawn in various
designs. Diapering continued to be practised in all three countries down
into the 15th century; and in particular it is applied with exquisite
effect in many of the highly-finished MSS. of the artists of Paris.
To return to the growth of the borders: these continue to be generally
of one style in both England and France and in Flanders during the 13th
century; but, when with the opening of the 14th century the conventional
foliage begins to expand, a divergence ensues. In France and Flanders
the three-pointed leaf, or ivy leaf, appears, which soon becomes fixed
and flourishes as a typical detail of ornament in French illumination of
the 14th and 15th centuries. In England there is less convention, and
along with formal branches and leafage, natural growths, such as
daisy-buds, acorns, oak leaves, nuts, &c., are also represented.
German.
Meanwhile German illumination, which in the large MSS. of the 12th
century had given high promise, in the following centuries falls away
and becomes detached from the western schools, and is, as a general
rule, of inferior quality, although in the 13th century fine examples
are still to be met with. Dark outlines and backgrounds of
highly-burnished gold are in favour. At present, however, there is not
sufficient published material to enable us to pass a definite judgment
on the value of German illumination in the later middle ages. But the
researches of scholars are beginning to localize particular styles in
certain centres. For example, in Bohemia there was a school of
illumination of a higher class, which seems later to have had an
influence on English art, as will be noticed presently.
Italian.
We must now turn to Italy, which has been left on one side during our
examination of the art of the more western countries. In attempting to
bridge the gap which severs the later classical style of Rome from the
medieval art of Italy, much must be left to conjecture. That a debased
classical style of drawing was employed in the earlier centuries of the
middle ages we cannot doubt. Such a MS. as the Ashburnham Genesis of the
7th century, which contains pictures of a somewhat rude character but
based apparently upon a recollection of the classical drawing of earlier
times, and which appears to be of Italian origin, serves as a link,
however slight. Coming down to a later period, the primitive native art
of the Frankish empire, as we have seen, extended into northern Italy
under the name of Franco-Lombardic ornamentation; and we have also seen
how the art of the Byzantine school reacted on the art of the southern
portion of the country. Hence, in the middle ages, the ornamentation of
Italian MSS. appears to move on two leading lines. The first, which we
owe to the Byzantine influence, in which figure-drawing is the leading
idea, follows the old classical method and, showing a distinctly Greek
impress, leads to the style which we recognize as Italian _par
excellence_, and which is seen most effectively manifested in the works
of Cimabue and Giotto and of allied schools. In this style the colouring
is generally opaque: the flesh tints being laid over a foundation of
deep olive green, which imparts a swarthy complexion to the features--a
practice also common in Byzantine art. The other line is that of the
Lombardic style which, like the Celtic school of the British Isles,
was an art almost exclusively of pure ornament, of intricate
interlacings of arabesques and animal forms, with bright colouring and
ample use of gold. The Lombardic style was employed in certain centres,
as, for example, at Monte Cassino, where in the 11th, 12th and 13th
centuries brilliant examples were produced. But it was not destined to
stand before the other, stronger and inherently more artistic, style
which was to become national. Still, its scheme of brighter colouring
and of general ornament seems to have had an effect upon later
productions, if we are not mistaken in recognizing something of its
influence in such designs as the interlaced white vine-branch borders
which are so conspicuous in Italian MSS. of the period of the
Renaissance.
[Illustration: PLATE IV.
DURANDUS. DE DlVINIS OFFICIIS. FOURTEENTH CENTURY. Italian School.
(British Museum. Add. MS. 31,032.)]
[Illustration: PLATE V.
VALERIUS MAXIMUS. ABOUT A.D. 1475. Executed for Philippe de Comines.
(British Museum. _Harley M.S._ 4374.)]
14th Century.
The progress of Italian illumination in the style influenced by the
Byzantine element is of particular interest in the general history of
art, on account of the rapidity with which it grew to maturity, and the
splendour to which it attained in the 15th century. Of the earlier
centuries the existing examples are not many. That Italian artists were
capable of great things as far back as the 12th century is evident from
their frescoes. We may notice the curious occurrence of two very
masterly paintings, the death of the Virgin and the Virgin enthroned,
drawn with remarkable breadth in the Italian style, in the _Winchester
Psalter_ (Cottonian MS. Nero C. iv.) of the middle of that century, as a
token of the possibilities of Italian illumination at that date; but
generally there is little to show. Even at the beginning of the 14th
century most of the specimens are of an ordinary character and betray a
want of skill in striking contrast with the highly artistic productions
of the Northern schools of England and France at the same period. But,
though inferior artistically, Italian book ornamentation had by this
time been so far influenced by the methods of those schools as to fall
into line with them in the general system of decoration. The miniature,
the initial, the miniature-initial and the border--all have their place
and are subject to the same laws of development as in the other schools.
But, once started, Italian illumination in the 14th century, especially
in Florence, expanded with extraordinary energy. We may cite the Royal
MS. 6, E. ix., containing an address to Robert of Anjou, king of Sicily,
1334-1342, and the Add. MS. 27,428 of legends of the saints, of about
the year 1370, as instances of very fine miniature-work of the
Florentine type. As the century advances, Italian illumination becomes
more prolific and is extended to all classes of MSS., the large volumes
of the Decretals and other law books, and still more the great folio
choral books, in particular affording ample space for the artist to
exercise his fancy. As was natural from the contiguity of the two
countries, as well as from political causes, France and Italy influenced
each other in the art. In many MSS. of the Florentine school the French
influence is very marked, and on the other hand, Italian influence is
exercised especially in MSS. of the southern provinces of France.
Italian art of this period also in some degree affected the illumination
of southern German MSS.
We have also to note the occurrence in Italy in the 14th century of good
illustrative outline drawings, generally tinted in light colours, and
occasionally we meet with a wonderfully bright style of illumination of
a lighter cast of colouring than usually prevails in Italian art: such
as may be seen in a MS. of Durandus _De divinis oficiis_ (Brit. Mus.,
Add. MS. 31,032) containing an exquisite series of initials and borders.
Taking a general view of the character of European illumination in the
14th century it may be described as an art of great invention and
flexibility. The rigid exactness of the 13th century is replaced by
flowing lines, just as the stiff, formal strokes of the handwriting of
that century was exchanged for a more cursive and easy style. The art of
each individual country now developed a national type of its own, which
again branched off into the different styles of provincial schools. For
example, in the eastern counties of England a very fine school of
illumination, the East Anglian, was established in the first half of the
century and produced a series of beautiful MSS., such as the _Arundel
Psalter_ (No. 83) in the British Museum.
Distinctive Borders.
By the end of the century the borders had developed on national lines so
fully as to become, more than any other detail in the general scheme,
the readiest means of identifying the country of origin. First as to the
English border: the favour shown to the introduction of natural growths
among the conventional foliage thrown out from the frame into which the
border had by this time expanded has already been noticed. But now a new
feature is introduced. The frame up to this time had consisted generally
of conventional branches with bosses at the corners. Now it is divided
more into compartments within which twining coils of ornament resembling
cut feather-work are common details; and feathery scrolls fill the
corner-bosses and are attached to other parts of the frame; while the
foliage thrown out into the margin takes the form of sprays of curious
lobe- or spoon-shaped and lozenge-shaped leaves or flowers, with others
resembling curled feathers, and with cup- and trumpet-shaped flowers.
This new style of border is contemporaneous with the appearance of a
remarkably brilliant style in the miniatures, good in drawing and rich
in colouring; and an explanation for the change has been sought in
foreign influence. It has been suggested, with some plausibility, that
this influence comes from the school of Prague, through the marriage of
Richard II. with Anne of Bohemia in 1382. However this may be, there
certainly is a decidedly German sentiment in the feathery scrolls just
described.
Turning to the French border, we find towards the close of the 14th
century that the early ivy-leaf pendant has now invaded all the margins
and that the page is set in a conventional frame throwing off on every
side sprigs and waving scrolls of the conventional ivy foliage, often
also accompanied with very delicate compact tracery of minute
flower-work filling the background of the frame. Nothing can be more
charming than the effect of such borders, in which the general design is
under perfect control. The character, too, of the French miniature of
this period harmonizes thoroughly with the brilliant border, composed as
it is very largely of decorative elements, such as diapered patterns and
details of burnished gold. In the Low Countries, as was natural, the
influence of French art continued to have great weight, at least in the
western provinces where the style of illumination followed the French
lead.
The Italian border in its ordinary form was of independent character,
although following the methods of the West. Thrown out from the initial,
it first took the form of pendants of a peculiarly heavy conventional
curling foliage, associated, as progress was made, with slender rods
jointed at intervals with bud-like ornaments and extending along the
margins; at length expanding into a frame. The employment of gilt spots
or pellets to fill spaces in the pendants and borders becomes very
marked as the century advances. They are at first in a simple form, but
they gradually throw out rays, and in the latter shape they become the
chief constituents of one kind of border of the 15th century.
15th Century.
Illumination in the 15th century enters on a new phase. The balance is
no longer evenly maintained between the relative values of the miniature
and the border as factors in the general scheme of decoration. The
influence of a new sentiment in art makes itself felt more and more; the
flat treatment of the miniature gradually gives place to true laws of
perspective and of figure-drawing, and to the depth and atmospheric
effects of modern painting. Miniature painting in the decoration of MSS.
now became more of a trade; what in old times had been done in the
cloister was now done in the shop; and the professional miniaturist,
working for his own fame, took the place of the nameless monk who worked
for the credit of his house. Henceforth the miniature occupies a more
important place than ever in the illuminated MS.; while the border, with
certain important exceptions, is apt to recede into an inferior position
and to become rather an ornamental adjunct to set off the miniature than
a work of art claiming equality with it.
Continuing the survey of the several national styles, we shall have to
witness the final supersession of the older styles of England and
France by the later developments of Italy and Flanders. We left English
illumination at the close of the 14th century strengthened by a fresh
infusion of apparently a foreign, perhaps Bohemian, source. The style
thus evolved marks a brilliant but short-lived epoch in English art. It
is not confined to MSS., but appears also in the paintings of the time,
as, for example, in the portrait of Richard II. in Westminster Abbey and
in that in the Wilton triptych belonging to the earl of Pembroke.
Delicate but brilliant colouring, gold worked in stippled patterns and a
careful modelling of the human features are its characteristics. In MSS.
also the decorative borders, of the new pattern already described, are
of exceptional richness. Brilliant examples of the style, probably
executed for Richard himself, may be seen in a magnificent Bible (Royal
MS. 1, E. ix.), and in a series of cuttings from a missal (Add. MS.
29,704-29,705) in the British Museum. But the promise of this new school
was not to be fulfilled. The same style of border decoration was carried
into the 15th century, and good examples are found down to the middle of
it, but a general deterioration soon sets in. Two MSS. must, however, be
specially mentioned as surviving instances of the fine type of work
which could still be turned out early in the century; and, curiously,
they are both the productions of one and the same illuminator, the
Dominican, John Siferwas. The first is a fragmentary Lectionary (Brit.
Mus., Harl. MS., 7026) executed for John, Lord Lovel of Tichmersh, who
died in 1408; the other is the famous Sherborne Missal, the property of
the duke of Northumberland, a large volume completed about the same time
for the Benedictine abbey of Sherborne in Dorsetshire. Certainly other
MSS. of equal excellence must have existed; but they have now perished.
After the middle of the 15th century English illumination may be said to
have ceased, for the native style disappears before foreign imported
art. This failure is sufficiently accounted for by the political state
of the country and the distractions of the War of the Roses.
In France the 15th century opened more auspiciously for the art of
illumination. Brilliant colouring and the diapered background glittering
with gold, the legacy of the previous century, still continue in favour
for some time; the border, too, of ivy-leaf tracery still holds its own.
But in actual drawing there are signs, as time advances, of growing
carelessness, and the artist appears to think more of the effect of
colour than of draughtsmanship. This was only natural at a time when the
real landscape began to replace the background of diaper and
conventional rocks and trees. In the first quarter of the century the
school of Paris comes prominently to the front with such magnificent
volumes as the Book of Hours of the regent, John Plantagenet, duke of
Bedford, now in the British Museum; and the companion MS. known as the
Sobieski Hours, at Windsor. In these examples, as is always the case
with masterpieces, we see a great advance upon earlier methods. The
miniatures are generally exquisitely painted in brilliant colours and
the drawing is of a high standard; and in the borders now appear natural
flowers intermingled with the conventional tracery--a new idea which was
to be carried further as the century advanced. The Psalter executed at
Paris for the boy-king Henry VI. (Cotton MS. Domitian A. xviii.) is
another example of this school, rather of earlier type than the Bedford
MS., but beautifully painted. In all three MSS. the borders show no lack
of finish; they are of a high standard and are worthy of the miniatures.
But perhaps the very finest miniature-work to be found in any MS. of
French origin of this period is the breviary (Harl. MS. 2897)
illuminated for John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, who was
assassinated in 1419. It could hardly be surpassed in refinement and
minuteness of detail.
Development towards the modern methods of painting moves on rapidly with
the century. First, the border in the middle period grows florid; the
simpler ivy-spray design, which had held its position so long, is
gradually pushed away by a growth of flowering scrolls, with flowers,
birds and animal and insect life introduced in more or less profusion.
But henceforward deterioration increases, and the border becomes
subsidiary. In the case of miniatures following the old patterns of the
devotional and liturgical books, a certain restraint still prevails; but
with those in other works, histories and romances and general
literature, where the paintings are devised by the fancy of the artist,
the advance is rapid. The recognition of the natural landscape, the
perception of atmospheric effects now guide the artist's brush, and the
modern French school of the second half of the 15th century is fairly
established. The most celebrated leaders of this school were Jean
Foucquet of Tours and his sons, many of whose works still bear witness
to their skill. In the MSS. of this school the influence of the Flemish
contemporary art is very obvious; and before the advance of that art
French illumination receded. A certain hardness of surface and want of
depth characterize the French work of this time, as well as the practice
of employing gilt hatching to obtain the high lights. This practice is
carried to excess in the latest examples of French illumination in the
early part of the 16th century, when the art became mechanical and
overloaded with ornament, and thus expired.
It has been seen that the Flemish school of illumination in the 13th and
14th centuries followed the French model. In the 15th century, while the
old tradition continued in force for a while, the art developed on an
independent line; and in the second half of the century it exercised a
widespread influence on the neighbouring countries, on France, on
Holland and on Germany. This development was one of the results of the
industrial and artistic activity of the Low Countries at this period,
when the school of the Van Eycks and their followers, and of other
artists of the great and wealthy cities, such as Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent,
were so prolific. The Flemish miniatures naturally followed on the lines
of painting. The new style was essentially modern, freeing itself from
the traditions of medieval illumination and copying nature. Under the
hand of the Flemish artist the landscape attained to great perfection,
softness and depth of colouring, the leading attribute of the school,
lending a particular charm and sense of reality to his out-door scenes.
His closer observation of nature is testified also in the purely
decorative part of his work. Flowers, insects, birds and other natural
objects now frequent the border, the origin of which is finally
forgotten. It ceases to be a connected growth wandering round the page;
it becomes a flat frame of dull gold or colour, over which isolated
objects, flowers, fruits, insects, butterflies, are strewn, painted with
naturalistic accuracy and often made, by means of strong shadows, to
stand out in relief against the background. This practice was soon
carried to florid excess, and all kinds of objects, including jewels and
personal ornaments, were pressed into the service of the border, in
addition to the details copied from nature. The soft beauty of the later
Flemish style proved very attractive to the taste of the day, with the
result that it maintained a high standard well on into the 16th century,
the only rivals being the MSS. of Italian art. The names of celebrated
miniaturists, such as Memlinc, Simon Bening of Ghent, Gerard of Bruges,
are associated with its productions; and many famous extant examples
bear witness to the excellence to which it attained. The Grimani
Breviary at Venice is one of the best known MSS. of the school; but
almost every national library has specimens to boast of. Among those in
the British Museum may be mentioned the breviary of Queen Isabella of
Spain (Add. MS. 18,851); the Book of Hours of Juana of Castille (Add.
MS. 18,852); a very beautiful Book of Hours executed at Bruges (Egerton
MS. 2125); another exquisite but fragmentary MS. of the same type (Add.
MS. 24,098) and cuttings from a calendar of the finest execution (Add.
MS. 18,855) ascribed to Bening of Ghent; a series of large sheets of
genealogies of the royal houses of Portugal and Spain (Add. MS. 12,531)
by the same master and others; and late additions to the Sforza Book of
Hours (Add. MS. 34,294).
But, besides the brilliantly coloured style of Flemish illumination
which has been described, there was another which was practised with
great effect in the 15th century. This was the simpler style of drawing
in white delicately shaded to indicate the contour of figures and the
folds of drapery, &c., known as _grisaille_ or _camaïeu gris_. It was
not indeed confined to the Flemish schools, but was practised also to
some extent and to good effect in northern France, and also in Holland
and other countries; but the centre of its activity appears to have been
in the Low Countries. The excellence to which it attained may be seen in
the MSS. of the _Miracles de Nostre Dame_ now in Paris and the Bodleian
Library, which were executed for Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, in
the middle of the 15th century.
Of the Dutch school of illumination, which was connected with that of
Flanders, there is little to be said. Judging from existing examples,
the art was generally of a more rustic and coarser type. There are,
however, exceptions. A MS. in the British Museum (King's MS. 5) of the
beginning of the 15th century contains scenes from the life of Christ in
which the features are carefully modelled, very much after the style of
English work of the same time; and some of the specimens of Dutch work
in _camaïeu gris_ are excellent.
German illumination in the 15th century appears to have largely copied
the Flemish style; but it lost the finer qualities of its pattern, and
in decoration it inclined to extravagance. Where the Flemish artist was
content with single flowers gracefully placed, the German filled his
borders with straggling plants and foliage and with large flourished
scrolls.
Italian illumination, which had developed so rapidly in the 14th
century, now advanced with accelerated pace and expanded into a variety
of styles, more or less local, culminating in the exquisite productions
of the classical renaissance in the latter half of the 15th century. As
in the other national styles of France and Flanders, the Italian
miniaturist quickly abandoned the conventional for the natural
landscape; but with more character both in the figure-drawing and in the
actual representation of scenery. The colouring is brilliant, not of the
softness of the Flemish school, but of stronger and harder body; the
outlines are firm and crisp and details well delineated. The Florentine,
the Lombard, the Venetian, the Neapolitan and other schools flourished;
and, though they borrowed details from each other, each had something
distinctive in its scheme of colouring. The border developed on several
lines. The rayed gold spots or studs or pellets, which were noticed in
the 14th century, are now grouped in profusion along the margins and in
the interstices of delicate flowering and other designs. Another
favourite detail in the composition of both initials and borders was the
twining vine tendril, generally in white or gold upon a coloured ground,
apparently a revival of the interlacing Lombardic work of the 11th and
12th centuries. At first, restrained and not too complex, it fills the
body of initials and short borders; then it rapidly expands, and the
convolutions and interlacings become more and more elaborate. Lastly
came the completed solid frame into which are introduced arabesques,
vignettes, candelabras, trophies, vases, medallions, antique gems,
cupids, fawns, birds, &c., and all that the fancy led by the spirit of
classical renaissance could suggest. Among the principal Italian MSS. of
the 15th century in the British Museum there are: a copy of _Plutarch's
Lives_, with miniatures in a remarkable style (Add. MS. 22,318);
Aristotle's _Ethics_, translated into Spanish by Charles, prince of
Viana, probably executed in Sicily about 1458 (Add. MS. 21,120); a
breviary of Santa Croce at Florence, late in the century (Add. MS.
29,735); Livy's _History of the Macedonian War_, of the Neapolitan
school, late in the century (Harl. MS. 3694); and, above all, the
remarkable Book of Hours of Bona Sforza of Savoy of about the year 1490
(Add. MS. 34,291); besides a fair number of MSS. exhibiting the rich
colouring of the Venetian school.
Like that of the French and Flemish schools, Italian illumination
survived into the 16th century, and for a time showed vigour. Very
elaborate borders of the classical type and of good design were still
produced. But, as in other countries, it was then a dying art. The
attempt to graft illumination on to books produced by the printing
press, which were now displacing the hand-written volumes with which the
art had always been associated, proved, except in a few rare instances,
a failure. The experiment did not succeed; and the art was dead.
Spain.
It remains to say a few words respecting the book ornamentation of the
Peninsula. In the earlier centuries of the middle ages there appears to
have been scarcely anything worthy of note. The Mozarabic liturgies and
biblical MSS. of the 9th to 12th centuries are adorned with initial
letters closely allied to the primitive specimens of the Merovingian and
Franco-Lombardic pattern, and coloured with the same crude tints; the
larger letters also being partly composed of interlaced designs. But the
style is barbaric. Such illustrative drawings as are to be found are
also of a most primitive character. Moorish influence is apparent in the
colours, particularly in the yellows, reds and blacks. In the later
middle ages no national school of illumination was developed, owing to
political conditions. When in the 15th century a demand arose for
illuminated MSS., recourse was had to foreign artists. Flemish art
naturally was imported, and French art on the one side and Italian art
on the other accompanied it. In the breviary executed for Queen Isabella
of Spain about the year 1497 (Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 18,851) we find a
curious random association of miniatures and borders in both the French
and the Flemish styles, the national taste for black, however, asserting
itself in the borders where, in many instances, the usual coloured
designs are replaced by black-tinted foliage and scrolls.
In other outlying countries of Europe the art of illumination can
scarcely be said to have existed. In Slavonic countries a recollection
of the Byzantine school lingered in book ornamentation, but chiefly in a
degraded and extravagant system of fantastic interlacings. In the 16th
century there was a revival in Russia of the Byzantine style, and the
head-pieces and other ornamental details of the 11th and 12th centuries
were successfully imitated.
The consideration of oriental art does not come within the scope of this
article. It may, however, be noted that in Arabic and Persian MSS. of
the 13th to 16th centuries there are many examples of exquisitely drawn
title-pages and other ornament of intricate detail, resplendent with
colour and gold, which may be ranked with western illuminations.
AUTHORITIES.--Medieval and later works dealing in part with the
technicalities of illumination are collected by Mrs Merrifield,
_Original Treatises dating from the 12th to 18th Centuries on the Art
of Painting_ (1849); see also Theophilus, _De diversis Artibus_, ed.
R. Hendrie (1847). Text-books and collections of facsimiles are Count
A. de Bastard, _Peintures et ornaments des manuscrits_, a magnificent
series of facsimiles, chiefly from Carolingian MSS. (1832-1869); Shaw
and Madden, _Illuminated Ornaments from MSS. and early Printed Books_
(1833); Noel Humphreys and Jones, _The Illuminated Books of the Middle
Ages_ (1849); H. Shaw, _Handbook of Medieval Alphabets_ (1853), and
_The Art of Illumination_ (1870); Tymms and Digby Wyatt, _The Art of
Illumination_ (1860); Birch and Jenner, _Early Drawings and
Illuminations_, with a dictionary of subjects in MSS. in the British
Museum (1879); J. H. Middleton, _Illuminated MSS. in Classical and
Medieval Times_ (1892); G. F. Warner, _Illuminated MSS. in the British
Museum_ (official publication, 1903); H. Omont, _Facsimilés des
miniatures des plus anciens MSS. grecs de la Bibl. Nationale_ (1902);
V. de Boutovsky, _Histoire de l'ornement russe du X^e au XVI^e
siècle_, including facsimiles from Byzantine MSS. (1870); J. O.
Westwood, _Facsimiles of Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and
Irish MSS._ (1868); E. M. Thompson, _English Illuminated MSS._ (1895);
_Paleografia artistica di Montecassino_ (1876-1884); _Le Miniature nei
codici Cassinesi_ (1887); A. Haseloff, _Eine thüringisch-sächsische
Malereischule des 13. Jahrhunderts_ (1897); G. Schwarzenski, _Die
Regensburger Buchmalerei des 10. und 11. Jahrhunderts_ (1901);
Sauerland and Haseloff, _Der Psalter Erzbischof Egberts von Trier_
(1901).
Several of the most ancient illustrated or illuminated MSS. have been
issued wholly or partially in facsimile, viz. The _Ambrosian Homer_,
by A. Ceriani; the _Schedae Vaticanae_ and the _Codex Romanus_ of
Virgil, by the Vatican Library; the Vienna Dioscorides, in the Leiden
series of facsimiles; the Vienna Genesis, by Hartel and Wickhoff; the
Greek Gospels of Rossano, by A. Haseloff; the Ashburnham Pentateuch,
by B. von Gebhart; the Utrecht Psalter, by the Palaeographical
Society.
Facsimiles from illuminated MSS. are also included in large
palaeographical works such as Silvestre, _Universal Palaeography_, ed.
Madden (1850); the _Facsimiles_ of the Palaeographical Society
(1873-1894) and of the New Palaeographical Society (1903, &c.); and
the _Collezione paleografia Vaticana_, the issue of which was
commenced in 1905. Excellent photographic reproductions on a reduced
scale are being issued by the British Museum and by the Bibliothèque
Nationale in Paris. (E. M. T.)
ILLUMINATI (Lat. _illuminare_), a designation in use from the 15th
century, and applied to, or assumed by, enthusiasts of types distinct
from each other, according as the "light" claimed was viewed as directly
communicated from a higher source, or as due to a clarified and exalted
condition of the human intelligence. To the former class belong the
_alumbrados_ of Spain. Menendez Pelayo first finds the name about 1492
(in the form _aluminados_, 1498), but traces them back to a Gnostic
origin, and thinks their views were promoted in Spain through influences
from Italy. One of their earliest leaders, born in Salamanca, a
labourer's daughter, known as La Beata de Piedrahita, came under the
notice of the Inquisition in 1511, as claiming to hold colloquies with
our Lord and the Virgin; having high patrons, no decision was taken
against her (_Los Heterodoxos Españoles_, 1881, lib. v.). Ignatius
Loyola, while studying at Salamanca (1527) was brought before an
ecclesiastical commission on a charge of sympathy with the _alumbrados_,
but escaped with an admonition. Others were not so fortunate. In 1529 a
congregation of unlettered adherents at Toledo was visited with
scourging and imprisonment. Greater rigours followed, and for about a
century the _alumbrados_ afforded many victims to the Inquisition,
especially at Cordova. The movement (under the name of _Illuminés_)
seems to have reached France from Seville in 1623, and attained some
proportions in Picardy when joined (1634) by Pierre Guérin, curé of
Saint-Georges de Roye, whose followers, known as Guérinets, were
suppressed in 1635 (Hermant, _Hist. des hérésies_, 1717). Another and
obscure body of _Illuminés_ came to light in the south of France in
1722, and appears to have lingered till 1794, having affinities with
those known contemporaneously in this country as "French Prophets," an
offshoot of the Camisards. Of different class were the so-called
Illuminati, better known as Rosicrucians, who claimed to originate in
1422, but rose into notice in 1537; a secret society, combining with the
mysteries of alchemy the possession of esoteric principles of religion.
Their positions are embodied in three anonymous treatises of 1614
(Richard et Giraud, _Dict. de la théol. cath._). A short-lived movement
of republican freethought, to whose adherents the name Illuminati was
given, was founded on May-day 1776 by Adam Weishaupt (d. 1830),
professor of Canon Law at Ingolstadt, an ex-Jesuit. The chosen title of
this Order or Society was Perfectibilists (_Perfektibilisten_). Its
members, pledged to obedience to their superiors, were divided into
three main classes; the first including "novices," "minervals" and
"lesser illuminati"; the second consisting of freemasons, "ordinary,"
"Scottish" and "Scottish knights"; the third or "mystery" class
comprising two grades of "priest" and "regent" and of "magus" and
"king." Relations with masonic lodges were established at Munich and
Freising in 1780. The order had its branches in most countries of the
European continent, but its total numbers never seem to have exceeded
two thousand. The scheme had its attraction for literary men, such as
Goethe and Herder, and even for the reigning dukes of Gotha and Weimar.
Internal rupture preceded its downfall, which was effected by an edict
of the Bavarian government in 1785. Later, the title Illuminati was
given to the French Martinists, founded in 1754 by Martinez Pasqualis,
and to their imitators, the Russian Martinists, headed about 1790 by
Professor Schwartz of Moscow; both were Cabalists and allegorists,
imbibing ideas from Jakob Boehme and Emmanuel Swedenborg (Bergier,
_Dict. de théol._).
See (especially for details of the movement of Weishaupt,) P.
Tschackert, in Hauck's _Realencyklopädie_ (1901). (A. Go.*)
ILLUMINATION, in optics, the intensity of the light falling upon a
surface. The measurement of the illumination is termed photometry
(q.v.). The fundamental law of illumination is that if the medium be
transparent the intensity of illumination which a luminous point can
produce on a surface directly exposed to it is inversely as the square
of the distance. The word transparent implies that no light is absorbed
or stopped. Whatever, therefore, leaves the source of light must in
succession pass through each of a series of spherical surfaces described
round the source as centre. The same _amount_ of light falls
perpendicularly on all these surfaces in succession. The amount received
in a given time by a unit of surface on each is therefore inversely as
the number of such units in each. But the surfaces of spheres are as the
squares of their radii,--whence the proposition. (We assume here that
the velocity of light is constant, and that the source gives out its
light uniformly.) When the rays fall otherwise than perpendicularly on
the surface, the illumination produced is proportional to the cosine of
the angle of obliquity; for the area seen under a given spherical angle
increases as the secant of the obliquity, the distance remaining the
same.
As a corollary to this we have the further proposition that the apparent
brightness of a luminous surface (seen through a transparent homogeneous
medium) is the same at all distances.
The word brightness is here taken as a measure of the amount of light
falling on the pupil per unit of spherical angle subtended by the
luminous surface. The spherical angle subtended by any small surface
whose plane is at right angles to the line of sight is inversely as the
square of the distance. So also is the light received from it. Hence the
brightness is the same at all distances.
The word brightness is often used (even scientifically) in another sense
from that just defined. Thus we speak of a bright star, of the
question--When is Venus at its brightest? &c. Strictly, such expressions
are not defensible except for sources of light which (like a star) have
no apparent surface, so that we cannot tell from what amount of
spherical angle their light appears to come. In that case the spherical
angle is, for want of knowledge, assumed to be the same for all, and
therefore the brightness of each is now estimated in terms of the
_whole_ quantity of light we receive from it.
The function of a telescope is to increase the "apparent magnitude" of
distant objects; it does not increase the "apparent brightness." If we
put out of account the loss of light by reflection at glass surfaces (or
by imperfect reflection at metallic surfaces) and by absorption, and
suppose that the magnifying power does not exceed the ratio of the
aperture of the object-glass to that of the pupil, under which condition
the pupil will be filled with light, we may say that the "apparent
brightness" is absolutely unchanged by the use of a telescope. In this
statement, however, two reservations must be admitted. If the object
under examination, like a fixed star, have no sensible apparent
magnitude, the conception of "apparent brightness" is altogether
inapplicable, and we are concerned only with the total quantity of light
reaching the eye. Again, it is found that the visibility of an object
seen against a black background depends not only upon the "apparent
brightness" but also upon the apparent magnitude. If two or three
crosses of different sizes be cut out of the same piece of white paper,
and be erected against a black background on the further side of a
nearly dark room, the smaller ones become invisible in a light still
sufficient to show the larger. Under these circumstances a suitable
telescope may of course bring also the smaller objects into view. The
explanation is probably to be sought in imperfect action of the lens of
the eye when the pupil is dilated to the utmost. Lord Rayleigh found
that in a nearly dark room he became distinctly short-sighted, a defect
of which there is no trace whatever in a moderate light. If this view be
correct, the brightness of the image on the retina is really less in the
case of a small than in the case of a large object, although the
so-called apparent brightnesses may be the same. However this may be,
the utility of a night-glass is beyond dispute.
The general law that (apart from the accidental losses mentioned above)
the "apparent brightness" depends only upon the area of the pupil filled
with light, though often ill understood, has been established for a long
time, as the following quotation from Smith's _Optics_ (Cambridge,
1738), p. 113, will show:--
"Since the magnitude of the pupil is subject to be varied by various
degrees of light, let NO be its semi-diameter when the object PL is
viewed by the naked eye from the distance OP; and upon a plane that
touches the eye at O, let OK be the semi-diameter of the greatest
area, visible through all the glasses to another eye at P, to be found
as PL was; or, which is the same thing, let OK be the semi-diameter of
the greatest area inlightened by a pencil of rays flowing from P
through all the glasses; and when this area is not less than the area
of the pupil, the point P will appear just as bright through all the
glasses as it would do if they were removed; but if the inlightened
area be less than the area of the pupil, the point P will appear less
bright through the glasses than if they were removed in the same
proportion as the inlightened area is less than the pupil. And these
proportions of apparent brightness would be accurate if all the
incident rays were transmitted through the glasses to the eye, or if
only an insensible part of them were stopt."
A very important fact connected with our present subject is: The
brightness of a self-luminous surface does not depend upon its
inclination to the line of sight. Thus a red-hot ball of iron, free from
scales of oxide, &c., appears flat in the dark; so, also, the sun, seen
through mist, appears as a flat disk. This fact, however, depends
ultimately upon the second law of thermodynamics (see RADIATION). It may
be stated, however, in another form, in which its connexion with what
precedes is more obvious--The amount of radiation, in any direction,
from a luminous surface is proportional to the cosine of the obliquity.
The flow of light (if we may so call it) in straight lines from the
luminous point, with constant velocity, leads, as we have seen, to the
expression [mu]r^(-2) (where r is the distance from the luminous
point) for the quantity of light which passes through unit of surface
perpendicular to the ray in unit of time, [mu] being a quantity
indicating the rate at which light is emitted by the source. This
represents the illumination of the surface on which it falls. The flow
through unit of surface whose normal is inclined at an angle [theta]
to the ray is of course [mu]r^(-2) cos [theta], again representing the
illumination. These are precisely the expressions for the gravitation
force exerted by a particle of mass [mu] on a unit of matter at
distance r, and for its resolved part in a given direction. Hence we
may employ an expression V = [Sigma][mu]r^(-1), which is exactly
analogous to the gravitation or electric potential, for the purpose of
calculating the effect due to any number of separate sources of light.
And the fundamental proposition in potentials, viz. that, if n be the
external normal at any point of a closed surface, the integral
[int][int](dV/dn)dS, taken over the whole surface, has the
value--4[pi][mu]0, where [mu]0 is the sum of the values of [mu] for
each source lying within the surface, follows almost intuitively from
the mere consideration of what it means as regards light. For every
source external to the closed surface sends in light which goes out
again. But the light from an internal source goes wholly out; and the
amount per second from each unit source is 4[pi], the total area of
the unit sphere surrounding the source.
It is well to observe, however, that the analogy is not quite
complete. To make it so, all the sources must lie on the same side of
the surface whose illumination we are dealing with. This is due to the
fact that, in order that a surface may be illuminated at all, it must
be capable of scattering light, i.e. it must be to some extent opaque.
Hence the illumination depends mainly upon those sources which are on
the same side as that from which it is regarded.
Though this process bears some resemblance to the heat analogy
employed by Lord Kelvin (Sir W. Thomson) for investigations in
statical electricity and to Clerk Maxwell's device of an
incompressible fluid without mass, it is by no means identical with
them. Each method deals with a substance, real or imaginary, which
flows in conical streams from a source so that the same amount of it
passes per second through every section of the cone. But in the
present process the velocity is constant and the density variable,
while in the others the density is virtually constant and the velocity
variable. There is a curious reciprocity in formulae such as we have
just given. For instance, it is easily seen that the light received
from a uniformly illuminated surface is represented by
[int][int]r^(-2) cos [theta] dS.
As we have seen that this integral vanishes for a closed surface which
has no source inside, its value is the same for all shells of equal
uniform brightness whose edges lie on the same cone.
ILLUSTRATION. In a general sense, illustration (or the art of
representing pictorially some idea which has been expressed in words) is
as old as Art itself. There has never been a time since civilization
began when artists were not prompted to pictorial themes from legendary,
historical or literary sources. But the art of illustration, as now
understood, is a comparatively modern product. The tendency of modern
culture has been to make the interests of the different arts overlap.
The theory of Wagner, as applied to opera, for making a combined appeal
to the artistic emotions, has been also the underlying principle in the
development of that great body of artistic production which in painting
gives us the picture containing "literary" elements, and, in actual
association with literature in its printed form, becomes what we call
"illustration." The illustrator's work is the complement of expression
in some other medium. A poem can hardly exist which does not awaken in
the mind at some moment a suggestion either of picture or music. The
sensitive temperament of the artist or the musician is able to realize
out of words some parallel idea which can only be conveyed, or can be
best conveyed, through his own medium of music or painting. Similarly,
music or painting may, and often does, suggest poetry. It is from this
inter-relation of the emotions governing the different arts that
illustration may be said to spring. The success of illustration lies,
then, in the instinctive transference of an idea from one medium to
another; the more spontaneous it be and the less laboured in
application, the better.
Leaving on one side the illuminated manuscripts of the middle ages (see
ILLUMINATED MSS.) we start with the fact that illustration was
coincident with the invention of printing. Italian art produced many
fine examples, notably the outline illustrations to the _Poliphili
Hypneratomachia_, printed by Aldus at Venice in the last year of the
15th century. Other early works exist, the products of unnamed artists
of the French, German, Spanish and Italian schools; while of more
singular importance, though not then brought into book form, were the
illustrations to Dante's _Divine Comedy_ made by Botticelli at about the
same period. The sudden development of engraving on metal and wood drew
many painters of the Renaissance towards illustration as a further
opportunity for the exercise of their powers; and the line-work, either
original or engraved by others, of Pollajuolo, Mantegna, Michelangelo
and Titian has its place in the gradual enlargement of illustrative art.
The German school of the 16th century committed its energies even more
vigorously to illustration; and many of its artists are now known
chiefly through their engravings on wood or copper, a good proportion of
which were done to the accompaniment of printed matter. The names of
Dürer, Burgmair, Altdorfer and Holbein represent a school whose engraved
illustrations possess qualities which have never been rivalled, and
remain an invaluable aid to imitators of the present day.
Progress in England.
Illustration has generally flourished in any particular age in
proportion to the health and vigour of the artistic productions in other
kinds. No evident revival in painting has come about, no great school
has existed during the last four centuries, which has not set its mark
upon the illustration of the period and quickened it into a medium for
true artistic expression. The etchers of the Low Countries during the
17th century, with Rembrandt at their head, were to a great extent
illustrators in their choice of subjects. In France the period of
Watteau and Fragonard gave rise to a school of delicately engraved
illustration, exquisite in detail and invention. In England Hogarth came
to be the founder of many new conditions, both in painting and
illustration, and was followed by men of genius so distinct as Reynolds
on the one side and Bewick on the other. With Reynolds one connects the
illustrators and engravers for whom now Bartolozzi supplies a surviving
name and an embodiment in his graceful but never quite English art. But
it is from Thomas Bewick that the wonderfully consistent development of
English illustration begins to date. Bewick marks an important period in
the technical history of wood-engraving as the practical inventor of the
"tint" and "white line" method of wood-cutting; but he also happened to
be an artist. His artistic device was to give local colour and texture
without shadow, securing thereby a precision of outline which allowed no
form to be lost. And though, in consequence, many of his best designs
have somewhat the air of a specimen plate, he succeeded in bringing into
black-and-white illustration an element of colour which had been wholly
absent from it in the work of the 15th and 16th century German and
Italian schools. Bewick's method started a new school; but the more racy
qualities of his woodcuts were entirely dependent on the designer being
his own cutter; and the same happy relationship gave distinct
characteristics to the nearly contemporary work of William Blake and of
Calvert. Blake's wonderful _Illustrations to the Book of Job_, while
magnificent in their conventional rendering of light and shade, still
retain the colourlessness of the old masters, as do also the more
broadly handled designs to his own books of prophecy and verse; but in
his woodcuts to Philips's _Pastorals_ the modern tendency towards local
colour makes itself strongly felt. So wonderfully, indeed, have colour
and tone been expressed in these rough wood-blocks, that more vivid
impressions of darkness and twilight falling across quiet landscape have
never been produced through the same materials. The pastoral designs
made by Edward Calvert on similar lines can hardly be over-praised.
Technically these engravings are far more able than those from which
they drew their inspiration.
With the exception of the two artists named, and in a minor degree of
Thomas Stothard and John Flaxman, who also produced original
illustrations, the period from the end of the 18th century till about
the middle of the 19th was less notable for the work of the designer
than of the engraver. The delicate plates to Rogers's _Italy_ were done
from drawings which Turner had not produced for purposes of
illustration; and the admirable lithographs of Samuel Prout and Richard
Bonington were merely studies of architecture and landscape made in a
material that admitted of indefinite multiplication. It is true that
Géricault came over to England about the year 1820 to draw the English
race-horse and other studies of country life, which were published in
London in 1821, and that other fine work in lithography was done by
James Ward, G. Cattermole, and somewhat later by J. F. Lewis. But
illustration proper, subject-illustration applied to literature, was
mainly in the hands of the wood-engravers; and these, forming a really
fine school founded on the lines which Bewick had laid down, had for
about thirty years to content themselves with rendering the works of
ephemeral artists, among whom Benjamin R. Haydon and John Martin stand
out as the chief lights. It must not be forgotten, however, that while
the day of a serious English school of illustration had not yet come,
Great Britain possessed an indigenous tradition of gross and lively
caricature; a tradition of such robust force and vulgarity that, by the
side of some choicer specimens of James Gillray and Henry W. Bunbury,
the art of Rowlandson appears almost refined. This was the school in
which George Cruikshank, John Leech, and the Dickens illustrators had
their training, from which they drew more and more away; until, with the
help of _Punch_, just before the middle of the 19th century, English
caricaturists had learned the secret of how to be apposite and amusing
without scurrility and without libel. (See CARICATURE.)
Influence of Wood-engraving.
Under NEWSPAPERS will be found some account of the rise of _illustrated
journalism_. It was in about the year 1832 that the illustrated weekly
paper started on its career in England, and almost by accident
determined under what form a great national art was to develop itself.
While in France the illustrators were making their triumphs by means of
lithography, English illustration was becoming more and more identified
with wood-engraving. The demand for a method of illustration, easy to
produce and easy to print, for books and magazines of large circulation
and moderate price, forced the artist before long into drawing upon the
wood itself; and so soon as the artist had asserted his preference for
facsimile over "tint," the school which came to be called "of the
'sixties" was in embryo, and waited only for artistic power to give it
distinction. The engraver's translation of the artist's painting or
wash-drawing into "tint" had largely exalted the individuality of the
engraver at the expense of the artist. But from the moment when the
designer began to put his own lines upon the wood, new conditions shaped
themselves; and though the artist at times might make demands which the
engraver could not follow, or the engraver inadequately fulfil the
expectation of the artist, the general tendency was to bring designer
and engraver into almost ideal relations--an ideal which nothing short
of the artist being his own engraver could have equalled. Out of an
alliance cemented by their common use and understanding of the material
on which they worked came the school of facsimile or partial-facsimile
engraving which flourished during the 'sixties, and lasted just so long
as its conditions were unimpaired--losing its flavour only at the moment
when "improved" mechanical appliances enabled the artist once more to
dissociate himself from the conditions which bound the engraver in his
craft.
Pre-Raphaelite movement.
Influence of Millais.