INTRODUCTORY
What is meant by art?--The art faculty--How artists may be compared--The
aim of illumination--Distinction between illumination and
miniature--Definition of illumination--The first miniature
painter--Origin of the term "miniature"--Ovid's allusion to his little
book.
CHAPTER II
VELLUM AND OTHER MATERIALS
Difference between vellum and parchment--Names of different
preparations--The kinds of vellum most prized for illuminated books--The
"parcheminerie" of the Abbey of Cluny--Origin of the term
"parchment"--Papyrus.
CHAPTER III
WRITING
Its different styles--Origin of Western alphabets--Various forms of
letters--Capitals, uncials, etc.--Texts used in Western Europe--Forms of
ancient writings--The roll, or volume--The codex--Tablets--Diptychs,
etc.--The square book--How different sizes of books were produced.
CHAPTER IV
GREEK AND ROMAN ILLUMINATION
The first miniature painter--The Vatican Vergils--Methods of
painting--Origin of Christian art--The Vienna Genesis--The
Dioscorides--The Byzantine Revival.
CHAPTER V
BYZANTINE ILLUMINATION
The rebuilding of the city of Byzantium the beginning of Byzantine
art--Justinian's fondness for building and splendour--Description of
Paul the Silentiary--Sumptuous garments--The Gospel-book of
Hormisdas--Characteristics of Byzantine work--Comparative scarcity of
examples--Rigidity of Byzantine rules of art--Periods of Byzantine
art--Examples--Monotony and lifelessness of the style.
CHAPTER VI
CELTIC ILLUMINATION
Early liturgical books reflect the ecclesiastical art of their
time--This feature a continuous characteristic of illumination down to
the latest times--Elements of Celtic ornament--Gospels of St.
Chad--Durham Gospels--Contrast of Celtic and Byzantine--St.
Columba--Book of Kells--Details of its decoration.
CHAPTER VII
CELTIC ILLUMINATION--_continued_
The Iona Gospels--Contrast with Roman and Byzantine--Details--Treatment
of animal forms--Colour schemes--The Gospel-book of St. Columbanus--That
of Mael Brith Mac Durnan--The Lindisfarne Gospels--Cumdachs--Other
book-shrines.
CHAPTER VIII
SEMI-BARBARIC ILLUMINATION
Visigothic--Merovingian--Lombardic--Extinction of classic art--Splendid
reign of Dagobert--St. Eloy of Noyon--The Library of Laon--Natural
History of Isidore of Seville--Elements of contemporary art--Details of
ornament--Symbolism--Luxeuil and Monte Cassino--Sacramentary of
Gellone--"Prudentius"--"Orosius"--Value of the Sacramentary of Gellone.
CHAPTER IX
DEVELOPMENT OF THE INITIAL
The initial and initial paragraph the main object of decoration in
Celtic illumination--Study of the letter L as an example--The I of "In
principio" and the B of "Beatus Vir".
CHAPTER X
FIRST ENGLISH STYLES
Transition from Iona to Lindisfarne--Influence of Frankish art--The
"Opus Anglicum"--The Winchester school and its characteristics--Whence
obtained--Method of painting--Examples--Where found and described.
CHAPTER XI
CAROLINGIAN ILLUMINATION
Why so-called--Works to be consulted--The Library of St. Gall--Rise and
progress of Carolingian art--Account of various MSS.--Feature of the
style--Gospels of St. Sernin--The Ada-Codex--Centres of
production--Other splendid examples--The Alcuin Bible--The Gospel of St.
Médard of Soissons.
CHAPTER XII
MONASTIC ILLUMINATION
Introductory--Monasteries and their work from the sixth to the ninth
century--The claustral schools--Alcuin--Warnefrid and Theodulf--Clerics
and monastics--The Golden Age of monasticism--The Order of St.
Benedict--Cistercian houses--Other Orders--Progress of writing in
Carolingian times--Division of labour.
CHAPTER XIII
MONASTIC ILLUMINATION--_continued_
The copyist--Gratuitous labour--Last words of copyists--Disputes between
Cluny and Citeaux--The Abbey of Cluny: its grandeur and influences--Use
of gold and purple vellum--The more influential abbeys and their work in
France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
CHAPTER XIV
OTHONIAN ILLUMINATION
Departure from Carolingian--Bird and serpent--Common use of dracontine
forms in letter-ornament--Influence of metal-work on the forms of
scroll-ornament--The vine-stem and its developments--Introduction of
Greek taste and fashion into Germany--Cistercian illumination--The
Othonian period--Influence of women as patronesses and
practitioners--German princesses--The Empress Adelheid of Burgundy--The
Empress Theophano--Henry II. and the Empress
Cunegunda--Bamberg--Examples of Othonian art.
CHAPTER XV
FRANCONIAN ILLUMINATION
The later Saxon schools--Bernward of Hildesheim--Tuotilo and Hartmut of
St. Gallen--Portrait of Henry II. in MS. 40 at Munich--Netherlandish and
other work compared--Alleged deterioration of work under the Franconian
Emperors not true--Bad character of the eleventh century as to
art--Example to the contrary.
CHAPTER XVI
ARTISTIC EDUCATION IN THE CLOISTER
The "Manual"--Its discovery--Its origin and contents--Didron's
translation--The "Compendium" of Theophilus--Its contents--English
version by Hendrie--Benedictine and Cistercian illumination--How they
differ--Character of monastic architects and artists.
CHAPTER XVII
THE RISE OF GOTHIC ILLUMINATION
Germany the chief power in Europe in the twelfth century--Rise of
Italian influence--The Emmeram MSS.--Coronation of Henry II.--The
Apocalypse--The "Hortus Deliciarum"--Romanesque--MS. of Henry the
Lion--The Niedermünster Gospels--Description of the MS.--Rise of
Gothic--Uncertainty of its origin--The spirit of the age.
BOOK II
CHAPTER I
THE GOLDEN AGE OF ILLUMINATION
The Gothic spirit--A "zeitgeist" not the invention of a single artist
nor of a single country--The thirteenth century the beginning of the new
style--Contrast between North and South, between East and West, marked
in the character of artistic leaf-work--Gradual development of Gothic
foliage--The bud of the thirteenth century, the leaf of the fourteenth,
and the flower of the fifteenth--The Freemasons--Illumination
transferred from the monastery to the lay workshop--The Psalter of St.
Louis--Characteristics of French Gothic illumination--Rise of the
miniature as a distinct feature--Guilds--Lay artists.
CHAPTER II
RISE OF NATIONAL STYLES
The fourteenth century the true Golden Age of Gothic
illumination--France the cradle of other national styles--Netherlandish,
Italian, German, etc.--Distinction of schools--Difficulty of assigning
the _provenance_ of MSS.--The reason for it--MS. in Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge--The Padua Missal--Artists' names--Whence obtained.
CHAPTER III
FRENCH ILLUMINATION FROM THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY TO THE RENAISSANCE
Ivy-leaf and chequered backgrounds--Occasional introduction of plain
burnished gold--Reign of Charles VI. of France--The Dukes of Orleans,
Berry, and Burgundy; their prodigality and fine taste for
MSS.--Christine de Pisan and her works--Description of her "Mutation of
Fortune" in the Paris Library--The "Roman de la Rose" and "Cité des
Dames"--Details of the French style of illumination--Burgundian MSS.,
Harl. 4431--Roy. 15 E. 6--The Talbot Romances--Gradual approach to
Flemish on the one hand and Italian on the other.
CHAPTER IV
ENGLISH ILLUMINATION FROM THE TENTH TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
Organisation of the monastic _scriptoria_--Professional outsiders: lay
artists--The whole sometimes the work of the same practitioner--The
Winchester Abbeys of St. Swithun's and Hyde--Their vicissitudes--St.
Alban's--Westminster--Royal MS. 2 A 22--Description of style--The
Tenison Psalter--Features of this period--The Arundel Psalter--Hunting
and shooting scenes, and games--Characteristic pictures, grotesques, and
caricatures--Queen Mary's Psalter--Rapid changes under Richard
II.--Royal MS. 2 E. 9--Their cause.
CHAPTER V
THE SOURCES OF ENGLISH FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ILLUMINATION
Attributed to the Netherlands--Not altogether French--The home of Anne
of Bohemia, Richard II.'s Queen--Court of Charles IV. at Prag--Bohemian
Art--John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia--The Golden Bull of Charles
IV.--Marriage of Richard II.--The transformation of English work owing
to this marriage and the arrival of Bohemian artists in
England--Influence of Queen Anne on English Art and
Literature--Depression caused by her death--Examination of Roy. MS. 1 E.
9 and 2 A. 18--The Grandison Hours--Other MSS.--Introduction of Flemish
work by Edward IV.
CHAPTER VI
ITALIAN ILLUMINATION
Barbaric character of Italian illumination in the twelfth
century--Ravenna and Pavia the earliest centres of revival--The
"Exultet"--La Cava and Monte Cassino--The writers of early Italian MSS.
not Italians--In the early fourteenth century the art is
French--Peculiarities of Italian foliages--The Law Books--Poems of
Convenevole da Prato, the tutor of Petrarch--Celebrated patrons--The
Laon Boethius--The Decretals, Institutes, etc.--"Decretum Gratiani,"
other collections and MSS.--Statuts du Saint Esprit--Method of
painting--Don Silvestro--The Rationale of Durandus--Nicolas of Bologna,
etc.--Triumphs of Petrarch--Books at San Marco, Florence--The Brera
Graduals at Milan--Other Italian collections--Examples of different
localities in the British Museum--Places where the best work was
done--Fine Neapolitan MS. in the British Museum--The white-vine style
superseded by the classical renaissance.
CHAPTER VII
GERMAN ILLUMINATION FROM THE THIRTEENTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Frederick II., _Stupor Mundi_, and his MS. on hunting--The Sicilian
school mainly Saracenic, but a mixture of Greek, Arabic, and Latin
tastes--The Franconian Emperors at Bamberg--Charles of Anjou--The House
of Luxembourg at Prag--MSS. in the University Library--The Collegium
Carolinum of the Emperor Charles IV.--MSS. at Vienna--The Wenzel
Bible--The Weltchronik of Rudolf v. Ems at Stuttgard--Wilhelm v. Oranse
at Vienna--The Golden Bull--Various schools--Hildesheimer Prayer-book at
Berlin--The Nuremberg school--The Glockendons--The Brethren of the Pen.
CHAPTER VIII
NETHERLANDISH ILLUMINATION
What is meant by the Netherlands--Early realism and study of
nature--Combination of symbolism with imitation--Anachronism in
design--The value of the pictorial methods of the old illuminators--The
oldest Netherlandish MS.--Harlinda and Renilda--The nunnery at
Maas-Eyck--Description of the MS.--Thomas à Kempis--The school of
Zwolle--Character of the work--The use of green landscape
backgrounds--The Dukes of Burgundy--Netherlandish artists--No miniatures
of the Van Eycks or Memling known to exist--Schools of Bruges, Ghent,
Liége, etc.--Brussels Library--Splendid Netherlandish MSS. at
Vienna--Gerard David and the Grimani Breviary--British Museum--"Romance
of the Rose"--"Isabella" Breviary--Grisailles.
CHAPTER IX
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
Communication with Italy--Renaissance not sudden--Origin of the schools
of France and Burgundy--Touraine and its art--Fouquet--Brentano
MSS.--"Versailles Livy"--Munich "Boccaccio," etc.--Perréal and
Bourdichon--"Hours of Anne of Brittany"--Poyet--The school of
Fontainebleau--Stained glass--Jean Cousin--Gouffier "Heures"--British
Museum Offices of Francis I.--Dinteville Offices--Paris "Heures de
Montmorency", "Heures de Dinteville," etc.
CHAPTER X
SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE ILLUMINATION
Late period of Spanish illumination--Isidore of Seville--Archives at
Madrid--Barcelona--Toledo--Madrid--Choir-books of the Escorial--Philip
II.--Illuminators of the choir-books--The size and beauty of the
volumes--Fray Andrés de Leon and other artists--Italian
influence--Giovanni Battista Scorza of Genoa--Antonio de Holanda,
well-known Portuguese miniaturist in sixteenth century--His son
Francesco--The choir-books at Belem--French invasion--Missal of
Gonçalvez--Sandoval Genealogies--Portuguese Genealogies in British
Museum--The Stowe Missal of John III.
CHAPTER XI
ILLUMINATION SINCE THE INVENTION OF PRINTING
The invention of printing--Its very slight affect on
illuminating--Preference by rich patrons for written books--Work
produced in various cities in the sixteenth century--Examples in German,
Italian, and other cities, and in various public libraries up to the
present time.
MANUSCRIPTS THAT MAY BE CONSULTED
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
BOOK I
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
What is meant by art?--The art faculty--How artists may be compared--The
aim of illumination--Distinction between illumination and
miniature--Definition of illumination--The first miniature
painter--Origin of the term "miniature"--Ovid's allusion to his little
book.
The desire for decoration is probably as old as the human race. Nature,
of course, is the source of beauty, and this natural beauty affects
something within us which has or is the faculty of reproducing the cause
of its emotion in a material form. Whether the reproduction be such as
to appeal to the eye or the ear depends on the cast of the faculty. In a
mild or elementary form, probably both casts of faculty exist in every
animated creature, and especially in the human being.
Art being the intelligent representation of that quality of beauty which
appeals to any particular observer, whoever exercises the faculty of
such representation is an artist.
Greatness or otherwise is simply the measure of the faculty, for in
Nature herself there is no restriction. There is always enough of beauty
in Nature to fill the mightiest capacity of human genius. Artists,
therefore, are measured by comparison with each other in reference to
the fraction of art which they attempt to reproduce.
The art of illumination does not aim at more than the gratification of
those who take pleasure in books. Its highest ambition is to make books
beautiful.
To some persons, perhaps, all ordinary books are ugly and distasteful.
Probably they are so to the average schoolboy. Hence the laudable
endeavour among publishers of school-books to make them attractive. The
desire that books should be made attractive is of great antiquity. How
far back in the world's history we should have to go to get in front of
it we cannot venture to reckon. The methods of making books attractive
are numerous and varied. That to which we shall confine our attention is
a rather special one. Both its processes and its results are peculiar.
Mere pictures or pretty ornamental letters in sweet colours and elegant
drawing do not constitute illumination, though they do form essential
contributions towards it; and, indeed, in the sixteenth century the
clever practitioners who wished, in bright colours, to awaken up the old
woodcuts used to call themselves illuminists, and the old German books
which taught how the work should be done were called _Illuminir bücher_.
Illuminists were not illuminators.
In the twelfth century when, as far as we know, the word illuminator was
first applied to one who practised the art of book decoration, it meant
one who "lighted up" the page of the book with bright colours and
burnished gold.
These processes suggest the definition of the art. _Perfect illumination
must contain both colours and metals_. To this extent it is in perfect
unison with the other mediæval art of heraldry; it might almost be
called a twin-sister.
As an art it is much older than its name. We find something very like it
even among the ancient Egyptians, for in the Louvre at Paris is a
papyrus containing paintings of funeral ceremonies, executed in bright
colours and touched in its high lights with pencilled gold. But after
this for many centuries there remains no record of the existence of any
such art until just before the Christian era. Then, indeed, we have
mention of a lady artist who painted a number of miniature portraits for
the great biographical work of the learned Varro. We must carefully
observe, however, that there is a distinction between illumination and
mere miniature painting. Sometimes it is true that miniatures--as _e.g._
those of the early Byzantine artists, and afterwards those of Western
Europe--were finished with touches of gold to represent the lights. This
brought them into the category of illuminations, for while miniatures
may be executed without the use of gold or silver, illuminations may
not. There are thousands of miniatures that are not illuminations.
At the period when illuminating was at its best the miniature, in its
modern sense of a little picture, was only just beginning to appear as a
noticeable feature, and the gold was as freely applied to it as to the
penmanship or the ornament. But such is not the case with miniature
painting generally.
Lala of Cyzicus, the lady artist just referred to, lived in the time of
Augustus Cæsar. She has the honour of being the first miniaturist on
record, and is said to have produced excellent portraits "in little,"
especially those of ladies, on both vellum and ivory. Her own portrait,
representing her engaged in painting a statuette, is still to be seen
among the precious frescoes preserved in the museum at Naples.
The term "miniature," now applied to this class of work, has been
frequently explained. It is derived from the Latin word _minium_, or red
paint, two pigments being anciently known by this name--one the sulphide
of mercury, now known also as "vermilion," the other a lead oxide, now
called "red lead." It is the latter which is generally understood as the
_minium_ of the illuminators, though both were used in manuscript work.
The red paint was employed to mark the initial letters or sections of
the MS. Its connection with portraiture and other pictorial subjects on
a small scale is entirely owing to its accidental confusion by French
writers with their own word _mignon_, and so with the Latin _minus_. In
classical times, among the Romans, the "miniator" was simply a person
who applied the _minium_, and had nothing to do with pictures or
portraits at all, but with the writing. That the rubrication of titles,
however, was somewhat of a luxury may be gathered from the complaint of
Ovid when issuing the humble edition of his verses from his lonely exile
of Tomi:--
"Parve (nec invideo) sine me liber ibis in urbem:
Hei mihi quo domino non licet ire tuo.
...........................
Nec te purpureo velent vaccinia succo
Non est conveniens luctibus ille color.
_Nec titulus minio_, nec cedro carta notetur
Candida nec nigra cornua fronte geras."[1]
_Tristia_, Cl. 1, Eleg. 1.
[1] "Go, little book, nor do I forbid,--go without me into that city
where, alas! I may enter never more.... Nor shall whortleberries adorn
thee with their crimson juice; that colour is not suitable for
lamentations. Nor shall thy title be marked with minium, nor thy leaf
scented with cedar-oil. Nor shalt thou bear horns of ivory or ebony upon
thy front."
There are many allusions in these pathetic lines which would bear
annotation, but space forbids. The one point is the use of minium.