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.
In the chapter on Othonian art we saw how the ornamentation of books was
drawn away from the great French centres, and began to take a new
departure from the various leading cities of Germany, such as Bamberg,
which the Othos had made their capital. Whilst the decline, which was
the inevitable consequence of a personal government like that of
Charlemagne, took place in France, it was but natural that the new
artistic movement at Bamberg should become the fashion, and Germany
predominant in art, as she was in politics. In the twelfth century the
German Empire was the principal power in Europe. France, Italy, England,
and Spain were all more or less secondary. Italy, however, was already
on the alert. She was initiating certain movements in social life that
must soon withdraw the cultivation of all the arts from the control of
the monasteries. At the same time the love of learning and personal
accomplishments of the second and third Othos and (St.) Henry II. soon
prepared the Imperial Court to become as brilliant as classical
scholarship and artistic skill of the highest class could make it.
The wave of Byzantine influence which had passed over Germany by the
time of Henry II. had immensely benefited the Germans. We notice it
especially in the miniatures of the Gospel-books. The technic is much
more masterly, the painting really methodical in soundly worked
body-colour with a delicate sense of harmony, and showing no longer that
coarse handling and slovenliness of execution that marks some of the
Carolingian miniatures. In the figure a sense of proportion has been
gained, the tendency, perhaps, being rather to excessive tallness, as
compared with the thick-set proportions of the Carolingian work. Again,
expression is improved--the faces are more intellectual--not beautiful
but strong, and quite superior to the utterly expressionless faces of
the Carolingian type.
Take, for example, that fine Missal now at Munich (Cimel. 60--Lat.
4456), in which St. Henry, who is bearded, receives his crown from a
bearded Christ, his arms being upheld by two bishops, Ulrich of Augsburg
and Emmeram of Regensburg, the two great saints of Bavaria. We know
these to be the personages represented, because two inscriptions tell us
so. To the one supporting the King's right hand: "Huius VODALRICVS cor
regis signet et actus." To the other: "EMMERANVS ei faveat solamine
dulci." The Christ is seated on a rainbow within a cusped aureola or
"amande" of several bands of different colours, on the central one being
inscribed in a mixture of Greek and Latin characters--one of the new
fashions brought in by the Greek revival:
"Clemens XPE tuo longum da vivere XPIC to:
Ut tibi devotus non perdat temporis usus."
Some writers have thought this to be a picture of the Emperor's
apotheosis, and that the crown is that of Life or Immortality; but such
is certainly not the import of the above verses.
"O gentle Christ give to thy Christ long to live
That devoted to Thee he may not lose the use of time."
Besides, two angels on either side Christ precipitately bestow on the
Emperor the spear and sword of a temporal sovereignty. Round the Emperor
are the words: "Ecce coronatur divinitus atque beatur. Rex pius
Heinricus proavorum stirp(e) polosus," all which can scarcely refer to
anything but his German Empire.
The expression, "give to thy Christ," is an allusion to the Hebrew usage
of calling the king the "anointed" or the "Christ."
Besides the interest possessed by this MS. as a monument of the art of
its own time, it has a special value resting in the fact that its
illuminations were copied from the famous Emmeram Golden Gospels of
Charles the Bald, written by Linthard and Berenger, and sent as a
present to Regensburg. Another illumination in it, representing the
enthronement of the Emperor, is extremely interesting as showing how the
later artist renders the work of the earlier one. The general
composition is precisely the same, the lower figures in the same
attitudes and bearing the same insignia. But in the details of costume,
and in the significant position of the Emperor, there are alterations.
In the miniature of the Emmeram Gospels the two angels above are simply
winged messengers of the usual biblical type; in the Missal they are
cloaked and crowned and bear horns in their hands. In the older MS. the
two crowned figures with horns on either side wear simple mural crowns;
in the later one they are regal like those of the Emperor. The details
also of the canopies are different. But the remarkable difference is
that while Charles the Bald is beardless and bears nothing in his hands,
merely sitting as if addressing an assembly, Henry II. holds in his
right hand a sceptre and in his left an orb and cross. Here is a
distinctly new feature with a meaning. Here are the symbols of authority
in the Emperor's own hands, and not merely in those of his
attendants.[27] These two MSS. are worthy of careful study.
[27] See p. 92.
In another Missal in the library at Bamberg is a miniature of the
Emperor presenting the book to the Virgin. In the great Evangeliary
presented by the Emperor Henry II. to the Cathedral of Bamberg there is
a grand picture of the Emperor and his consort the famous saint
Cunegunda being crowned by Christ, with SS. Peter and Paul standing at
the sides. Here also, as in the Carolingian MS. already mentioned, are
the nations bringing tribute, but not in the same order. Here Germany
stands upright between two figures of Gaul and Rome, while six others
appear simply as busts (Munich, Cimel. 60. 4456).
The twelfth century was clearly much given to symbolism and allegory, as
shown in apocalyptic commentaries and similar works. A very remarkable
"Apocalypse" is that in the library of the Marquis d'Astorga. The latter
is remarkably rich in pictures, which have been described by M.A.
Bachelin of Paris. The drawing in these pictures reminds one of the
bas-reliefs of the campaigns of Hadrian and Trajan and other work of the
early Roman centuries. One hundred and ten miniatures of uncommon
interest constitute the illustrations, many of which are perfect
curiosities of symbolism, depicting not only the four figures of the
evangelists, but the mysteries of the seals and vials, serpents, beasts,
etc., on yellow, red, green, blue, and brown backgrounds. The draperies
in some of the miniatures show Byzantine teaching, but with the
grandiose style of the early Roman times. The MS. it might be compared
with of the twelfth century is the "Hortus Deliciarum" of the Abbess
Herrade. This latter MS., which unfortunately was burnt with many other
treasures during the siege of Strassburg by the Germans in 1870, was a
veritable treasury of mediæval customs, furniture, and costumes,
illustrating a medley of encyclopædic information for the use of the
nuns and secular students of the Abbey of Hohenburg in Alsace. The good
abbess called her book a "Garden of Delights."
It is known that it dated from 1159, as that date and also the date of
1175 occurred in its pages. We do not know whether the authoress was
also the illuminatrix, but at any rate she directed the illumination.
Their style is of the same type as that of the Apocalypse just spoken
of, somewhat monumental as figures of the Liberal Arts, allegorical
figures of the virtues and vices, and the syrens as symbols of sensual
temptation. There was a figure of the Church riding upon a beast with
the four heads of the evangel-symbols--the sun and moon in chariots as
in the classical mythology, and scenes of warfare, marriage festivities,
banquets, everything indeed depicting the life of contemporary
persons.[28] The drawing and treatment generally is of no very skilful
kind--the colouring bright and in body-colour. Draperies as usual much
folded and fluttering, and the heads generally of the calm expression of
the later French school, but the action sometimes very spirited.
[28] For a copious and exhaustive account of the "Hortus," see "Het
Gildeboek," Utrecht, 1877, v. i. Also Engelhardt, Herrad v. H., etc.,
8°, with atlas of twelve plates, 1818.
The title began thus: "Incipit hortus deliciarum, in quo collectis
floribus scripturarum assidue jucundetur turmula adolescentularum." In
the _Rhytmus_ came the lines:--
"Salve cohors virginum
Hohenburgensium
Albens quasi lilium
Amans dei filium
Herrat devotissima
Tua fidelissima
Mater et ancillula
Cantat tibi cantica
Sic et liber utilis
Tibi delectabilis
Et non cesses volvere
Hanc in tuo pectore."
In the Netherlands, which mostly at this time lay within the boundary of
Lotharingia or Lorraine, the style of illumination was much the same as
in other German districts. Gospel-books and Psalters, however, exhibit
features somewhat akin to English work.
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the continental methods prevail in
more solid painting and less penwork.
Of the twelfth-century work of Germany examples are exceedingly
numerous, stretching over every province from West to East, as
Westphalia, the Palatinate, Burgundy, Switzerland and Bavaria, extending
even into Bohemia. An Evangeliary in the University Library at Prag
agrees altogether with those of Germany.
Towards the middle of the twelfth century, with the accession of the
House of Hohenstaufen (1138, etc.), arose a new style, since called
Romanesque, of which many examples are to be found in various libraries.
It is not very easy to select the most typical examples, but one good
and typical MS. is found in a Gospel-book at Carlsruhe, which contains
some capital miniatures of this most thoroughly German style.
Under Frederick Barbarossa, as under the Caroling Emperors and the
Othos, we may note a wave of new life, especially in Saxony. A contrast
as regards artistic ability to the "Hortus Deliciarum" is the
Gospel-book executed for Henry the Lion at the convent of Helmershausen,
once in the Cathedral Library at Prag, and bought by King George of
Hanover.[29] In the page of the Eusebian Canons we see features which
take us across the plains of Lombardy to the doors of S. Michele of
Pavia, and to the churches of Venice. The columns rest on crouching
animals. Allegorical figures are introduced striving with each other as
in the later Gothic illuminations. A half-nude figure of Faith
vanquishes the champion of Paganism. On the dedication page sits the
Madonna with SS. John Baptist and Bartholomew, and below them the patron
saints of Brunswick, Blaize, and Egidius leading forth the Duke and his
wife, Mathilda. It may indeed be called a splendid book. Among the rest
of the pictures, some of them within richly decorated borders, occurs
the usual representation of the Duke and his Duchess receiving crowns.
The figures are well drawn, even elegant, the draperies good, and the
colouring skilful.
[29] See F. Culemann in _Neue hannov. Zeitung_, 1861, Nos. 22-4.
One of the many characteristic MSS. of this period to be seen in
continental libraries is the "Mater Verborum" of the monk Conrad, of
Scheyern in Bavaria, a noted scribe, illuminator, goldsmith, and
grammarian. The subject is one that scarcely gives promise of lending
itself to pictorial illustration, but after the successful attempts of
Theodulf we may be prepared for anything in the way of diagram and
symbol. Imagine a dictionary in which not only actual objects are
pictorially represented, but also abstract terms. Music, philosophy,
virtues and vices illustrated by historical instances--sacred subjects
treated in the manner of the glass painters which is so commonly found
in German and French work of this period.
Of twelfth-century illumination in general it may be said that it shows
a marked effort towards true artistic design and subtle beauty of linear
outline. Some of the noblest curve-drawing, with rich and massive
grouping of foliages, is to be found in the ornamental initials and
dignified border designs presented on the later examples of the century,
and it is very interesting to observe the rapid pace at which the climax
is reached in mere calligraphic ornament after the opening of the Gothic
period. Initials become smaller but exquisitely drawn, and reasonable
expression takes the place of the senseless stare or grotesque
exaggeration of attitude and feature which detract from the artistic
value of all preceding efforts. To conclude our list of German
illuminations of purely monastic production, we will bring forward one
more example of women's work, which whether as regards its curious
illustrations of symbolism, or its richly foliaged geometrical
backgrounds and borders, is one of the most interesting MSS. in any
collection. It is the Evangeliary of the Abbess Uota, or perhaps,
rather, Tuota of Niedermünster, a lady of the House of the Counts of
Falckenstein (1177-80); or of Utta, abbess from 1009 to 1012, but more
probably the former. Another, Tutta, ruled the abbey from 920 to 934,
and still another 1239-42. This precious MS., which Cahier has very
fully described as the "Manuscrit du Niedermuenster de Ratisbonne," is
now in the Royal Library at Munich (Cimel. 35). Some writers, in
speaking of it, have classed it among the MSS. of the eleventh century,
but it is too refined and too well done for that period, and, indeed,
that it belongs to the _latter part_ of the twelfth is almost proved
from the work itself. Perhaps it was the profusion of inscriptions or
legends placed all over the miniatures that gave the idea of its
belonging to the eleventh century. In this respect the MS. certainly
resembles the Evangeliary of Luxeuil already described. The miniature of
the Crucifixion is very remarkable. Besides the figure of Christ showing
a return to the primitive Syriac idea,[30] instead of the figures as
usual of Mary and John, here are given allegorical figures _of_ Life and
Death. (Cf. Fest. in exaltatione sce crucis. Ad Laudes, 14th Sept.).
Perhaps the best commentary on these old figures is the "Biblia
Pauperum," as it is commonly called, or as it should be called, the
Bible of the poor preachers. It also has the old allegories and
inscriptions rendered into later forms.
[30] Cf. the Rabula MS. at Vienna.
As for the texts or inscriptions, they would require a commentary to
themselves--not to speak of translations and remarks upon the
calligraphy. One of these remarkable miniatures may be described, as it
depicts the presentation of the volume to the Madonna. Our Lady in the
centre of the design is seated on a Byzantine _sedile_ with the infant
Jesus on her knees. She is crowned, and has the nimbus, and appears as
if intended to represent the glory of the Church. Her hand is raised as
in the act of teaching. Christ, also, has the nimbus, but with the cross
upon it, and raises his hand in the attitude of benediction. In the
tympanum of the semicircle over the Madonna, written in letters of gold
on purple, surrounded by the word "Sancta" in ordinary ink, is the
monogram of Maria, having a small sun and moon above it, and other
inscriptions, partly Latin, partly Greek. Below the Madonna, on the
left, stands the abbess, her knees slightly bent, holding up her book,
and clothed in the costume of her Order, but coloured, no doubt, simply
for artistic reasons. Thus she wears a blue veil and a claret-coloured
robe. In the reversed semicircle before her is another monogram, Uota or
Tuota, a name which perhaps may be translated Uta, Utta, Ida, etc. It
has been said already who she is likely to have been. It does not
follow, of course, that she herself wrote or illuminated the book she is
presenting, but judging from similar instances, as _e.g._ Herrade of
Landsberg and Hrosvita of Gandersheim, she may have done so.
Still the work looks technically too masterly for anyone not a trained
artist to have done. In the corners are small quadretti, containing
busts of the four cardinal virtues:--Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and
Fortitude; and in circlets in the centre of each border are Faith, Hope,
and Charity, the latter twice, at top and bottom. A number of
extraordinary beasts fill up little niches in the design, which may
possibly be also symbolical, but possibly also nothing but artistic
fancies. The other miniatures we must pass over. Nevertheless those
representing the four evangelists are worth examination;[31] the
ornamentation being especially rich and elaborate. Let us now turn our
attention to a new element--a new spirit we might term it--which was
manifesting itself in Italy and France. We cannot too strongly insist
upon the fact that whatever appears in illumination has appeared first
in architecture and its auxilliary arts. Now we have to see how this
fact begins to change almost entirely the character of the ornamentation
of books. During the latter part of the twelfth century, when precisely
we cannot say, nor where, a new form of architecture began to show
itself. This new style, laying aside both the classic cornice and the
Romanesque arch, makes use of a new vertical principle of construction,
called in French the _ogive_ or arch, composed of two sections only,
instead of the whole semicircle. By some fatality, of which no exact
explanation can be given, English writers have given this new style the
name of Gothic. Scores of cathedrals throughout Europe are called Gothic
cathedrals, whereas in all probability, if we exclude Sweden, there is
only one really Gothic building in the world, that is the Tomb of
Theodoric at Ravenna, and none of the so-called Gothic cathedrals are in
the least like it. As to the invention itself, it has been claimed by
almost every nationality in Europe. There can be no doubt that
accidentally, or otherwise, the pointed arch had been used often enough
without any idea of its adoption as a principle of construction even in
ancient buildings. The famous gate at Mycoene is one instance. This is
not the place to discuss the question, so we let it pass. We could point
out long and elaborate arguments intended to prove that it originated in
England--that it originated in France--in Germany.[32] Possibly they may
all be right in a sense, for most probably the origin was not in any
particular locality, but in the religious spirit of the time. It was a
general revival of the Church itself that was its cause. If any special
locality has more reason on its side than another, it is probably
France, but as we say, that is not an essential point. It must suffice
us here that it arose, and that by the end of the twelfth century it was
a fact. And the remarkable part about it is that it was by the influence
of lay artists and especially of the freemasons that it became the
accepted architecture of Christendom.
[31] For more about them, see Cahier, _Mélanges d'Archéologie, etc._
[32] Not to mention _theories_, which are endless.
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.
We have now reached the parting of the ways. The study of Nature is fast
superseding the dogmas of the monastic code, and what some writers have
characterised as the hieratic is giving way to the naturalistic
treatment of art. Like the pointed architecture itself, it is an outcome
of the spirit of the age. Exactly when it begins we cannot say. As in
the physical sciences, our limits are necessarily somewhat arbitrary to
suit our convenience in classification. We take the beginning of the
thirteenth century as a convenient dividing line between old and new. We
accept it as the boundary between the artistic sway of the East and
South--and that of the West and North--between the lifeless fetters of
prescription and the living freedom of invention. The contrast between
the two is very strongly marked. The soft and curling foliages of the
sunny South are for a season giving way to the hard and thorny leafage
of the wintry North. It would seem as if pointed architecture began with
the hard and frozen winter of its existence, and if it had been the plan
or design of one individual we might have accepted this peculiarity as
part of the scheme, and all that followed as a natural consequence and
development. But it is curious that as a system worked out by many minds
pointed architecture should thus begin. First come thorns and cusps and
lanceolate forms without foliage. Then, not perfect leaves, but buds. In
due time the bud opens, at first into the profile coil, and by-and-by
into the full-spread leaf. Then comes the flower, and finally the fruit.
After that, rottenness and decay. It is curious that this should
actually take place through a course of centuries. That it should be
reflected in book illumination is simply the usual order of things--the
fact has been frequently observed, and as it is curious, we call
attention to it. But, as we have said, the great change itself was
brought about by the influence of lay artists, and chiefly by the
freemasons.
Who and what the freemasons were everybody is supposed to know, but on
inquiry we find very few people indeed know anything definite about
them. Of course we do not refer to the friendly societies or social
guilds that now bear the name, but to the mediæval builders. "Everybody
knows," says Batissier,[33] "that the study of the sciences and of
literature and the practice of the various branches of art took refuge
in the monasteries during the irruptions of the barbarians and the
strife of international war. In those retreats, not only painting,
sculpture, engraving on metals, and mosaic, but also architecture were
cultivated. If the question arose about building a church, it was nearly
always an ecclesiastic who furnished the plan and monks who carried out
the works under his direction. The brethren in travelling from convent
to convent naturally exercised a reciprocal influence over each other.
We conceive, then, that the abbeys of any given Order would put in vogue
the same style, and that the art would be modified under certain points
of view, in the same manner in each country."
[33] _Hist. de l' Art Monumental_, p. 466, Paris, 1845, I. 8°.
"It is certain, moreover, that outside the cloisters there were also
troops of workmen not monastics, who laboured under the direction of the
latter."
"Masons were associated among them in the same way as other trade
corporations. It was the same with these corporations in the South as
with the communes--the _débris_ of the Roman organisation; they took
refuge in the Church, and had arrived at a condition of public life and
independence, when order was established between the commune, the
Seignory, and the Church."
"During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries these corporations were
organised into recognised fraternities having their own statutes, but
there is abundant evidence of their having a much earlier existence."
"A great number of masons were trained in Italy, and came from Lombardy,
which in the tenth century even was an active centre of civilisation.
Italy had its corporations of masons called _maestri comaccini_,
enjoying exclusive privileges, who, having passed the different degrees
of apprenticeship, became 'accepted'[34] masons, and had the right of
exercising their profession wherever they might be. The sovereigns of
different countries granted them special privileges, and the popes
protected them in all Catholic countries where they might travel. Thus
the lodges grew and prospered. The Greek artists who had fled from
Constantinople during the various Iconoclast persecutions had got
themselves enrolled in the ranks of the freemasons, and taught their
fellow-masons their Byzantine methods."
[34] German "angenommen."
"Speedily these corporations spread through France, England, and
Germany, where they were employed almost exclusively by the religious
Orders, in building their churches and conventual buildings."
While, therefore, the general plan and rules of construction were common
to all members of the fraternity, the details were almost entirely left,
under regulations, to the individual taste of certain members of each
band of workmen, who, being all qualified artists, were quite capable of
putting in execution, and with masterly skill, any such minutiæ of
ornament as might be left to their discretion.[35] Local illuminators
would thus speedily get hold of every novelty, and the page of the
Psalter or Bible would become, as a French writer has explained it, a
_vitrail sur velin_. If not indeed exclusively following the stained
glass, they copied the mural decorations, and so we find the backgrounds
of the miniatures, whether fitted into the initials or placed separately
in framed mouldings, faithfully reproducing the imbrications,
_carrelages_, panellings, and diapers of these mural enrichments.
[35] Governor Pownall ("Observations on the Origin and Progress of Gothic
Architecture, and on the Corporation of Freemasons," _Archæologia_,
1788, vol. 9, pp. 110-126) was of opinion that "the Collegium or
Corporation of Freemasons, were the first formers of Gothic architecture
into a regular and scientific order by applying the models and
proportions of timber framework to building in stone," and that this
method "came into use and application about the close of the twelfth or
commencement of the thirteenth century." See also Gould (R.F.), _History
of Freemasonry_, vol. i. p. 259, note. "Without going so far as to agree
with Governor Pownall that the Freemasons invented Gothic, it may be
reasonably contended that without them it could not have been brought to
perfection, and without Gothic they would not have stood in the peculiar
and prominent position that they did, that there was mutual indebtedness,
and while without Freemasons there would have been no Gothic...without
Gothic the Freemasons would have formed but a very ordinary community of
trades unionists."
To select an example of Gothic illumination which shall exemplify the
earliest features of the pointed style is not an easy matter,
notwithstanding the number of thirteenth-century MSS. which still exist
in public collections. In the National Library at Paris are several such
MSS. One that decidedly marks the change from the German work hitherto
in vogue is the Psalter of St. Louis (Nat. Lib., Paris., Lat. 10525),
which contains nearly eighty small, delicately executed miniatures. It
was completed about 1250. Its noticeable features are a vastly improved
dexterity in draughtsmanship, which displays a refined certainty of
touch, enabling the artist to express his intention with unhesitating
freedom. The drawing thus produced in outline is filled in with flat
tints of body-colour, without gradation or any attempt at brush-work
shading. Whatever finishing in this respect might be thought necessary
was added with the pen. Nothing could show more clearly that it is
simply and frankly imitative of stained glass. As in the glass the black
outline is left for definition. No colour is used on hands of faces
except a slight touch of red on the cheeks and lips. The prevailing
colours are rich blue and bright scarlet. Perhaps the illuminator would
have been better advised had he neglected some of the harder features of
this kind of work. Not considering that the limits of the glass painter
did not apply to his vellum, he fettered himself unnecessarily, and
instead of a picture he has only succeeded in producing a surface
enamel, or a mere reticulation of surface-patterns. This very defect has
by some writers been held up to admiration as the true perfection of all
illumination. Its flatness was applauded because it had to be shut up in
a book, and was therefore the only appropriate way of making a picture
for such a purpose. But whoever would dream that because a picture,
painted in due perspective and proper light and shade, was to be shut up
in a book that the figures represented in relief would actually be
crushed. Such reasoning is most puerile. The supposed parallel case of a
carpet or hearth-rug representing groups of flowers--even if the latter
ever did deceive the domestic cat--does not in the least affect the most
childish conception of a picture in a book. We see it in a scene in
light and shade, we enjoy and admire its reliefs, but at the same time
we know it is a picture, and that it is quite flat. The two tests of
knowledge never interfere with each other. To suppose they do is to
suppose a case of imbecility that even a lunatic must laugh to scorn. So
far, therefore, we think the illuminator mistaken in slavishly copying
the limitations of the glass-painter. It is no very great knowledge of
nature that is shown in these drawings. There is a good example of the
method of study followed by thirteenth-century artists in the
sketch-book of a French mason named Villars de Honnecourt, still kept in
the National Library at Paris.[36] In this book the artist has made
drawings, as he says, from the life--some are views, others drawings of
objects of art; one represents a lion of the mediæval heraldic type, yet
the artist assures us it is from the life. But there is no real
accuracy, everything is done with reference to some canon. It is,
however, quite free from the Byzantine influence, though by no means
free from a certain tincture of symbolism. The nude is rarely attempted,
but when it is it is certainly less ugly than in Carolingian and
Romanesque. To return to the Psalter--the style of the figures is rather
graceful, attitudes are gentle and modest, though the inclination of
head and body are such as to suggest a sort of undulatory movement in
walking that is scarcely natural. The forms are slender, and the limbs
occasionally beyond the owner's control--sometimes even deformed. The
feet are small and weak--now and then over-twisted. The hands more
delicate than formerly, especially when open. Faces are gently oval and
sometimes expressive.
[36] It has been published as the Album of V. de H., Paris, 1858.
Sometimes the "histories" are placed in initial letters, the grounds of
which, when not of burnished gold, consist of imitations of mural
_carrelages_, chequers, etc., or rich enamelled patterns imitative of
engraved traceries on metal. In other cases they are placed in
frame-mouldings, consisting of a bar or beading of gold supporting an
inner bar of coloured and polished wood or enamel work--the polish being
represented by a fine line of white along the centre. For illustrations
of this precious volume the reader may refer to Labarte, _Hist. des Arts
industriels_, album, pl. 92 (Paris, 1864).
Now that the monasteries had ceased to be the exclusive nurseries of art
and literature, the masters of the different arts and crafts usually
belonged to the middle classes of the towns, where at first each art or
craft had its own fraternity, and as the idea of trade-association crew,
the crafts most nearly related would form a guild or corporation. All
who joined these corporations bound themselves to work only as the ruler
of the guild permitted. Nor were outsiders allowed to compete with them
in their own branches, so exclusive was the protection of the guild.
Each confraternity had its altar in some particular church, whose patron
saint became the protector of the guild. And indeed the constitution of
the guild included even political rights and obligations--military
service among the rest, like other feudal institutions. Each town had
its own special corporations, which thus led to the formation of
separate schools of art; while travelling apprenticeships gave the
opportunity to all of acquiring knowledge not accessible at home.
Members were accustomed to travel and to attach themselves to the
service of various princes, receiving appointments as "varlets" or
"escripvains" or "enlumineurs," which sometimes obliged them to resign
their membership. Occasionally they became political agents and even
ambassadors.
It will be remembered that, some pages back, we noticed the fact that in
Western illumination generally the design of the page depended upon the
initial letter, or that at least the initial was the principal object of
it. In the thirteenth century, although the initial had very much
diminished in size, the same principle still prevailed. The letter
itself was formed of some fabulous long-necked and long-tailed animal or
bird, mostly a dragon as conceived by the mediæval artist. The head
framed more or less on that of the mastiff or lion, or both; the legs of
a bird of prey; the body and tail of a serpent; wings of heraldic
construction to suit the form of the letter. While the body of this
unspeakable beast formed the body of the letter, the tail was
indefinitely extended to sweep down the margin of the text and round the
base of it, so as to form a border, while not unfrequently slender
branches would spring from it to form coils here and there ending in a
kind of flower-bud, the extremity of the tail forming a similar coil.
Very soon, however, the animal form was abandoned, and the letter made
simply as a decorated initial or capital. If possible, one of its limbs
was made to sweep up and down the "margin" and along the bottom or top
as before. Where the interior is not occupied by a "history," we find
coiled stems ending in profile leaves or buds.
At the same time the text has diminished in size, sometimes down to
dimensions no greater than those of an ordinary printed book of to-day,
but often beautiful and regular as the clearest printing. Such a book is
the Bible written by a certain William of Devon, now in the British
Museum (Roy. MS. 1 D. 1). A description of this beautiful MS. may be
seen in _Bibliographica_, vol. i. p. 394, written by Sir E.M. Thompson.
Here, though the writing is that of an Englishman, the style is
completely French.
Another MS. deserving of study is a richly illuminated Bible now in the
Burney Collection of our National Library (No. 3). Another, which, owing
to its being recommended for study by the late John Ruskin, was once
known as the Ruskin Book, is Add. MS. 17341, which contains many fine
initials with border and bracket foliages similar to those of the
Evangeliary of the Sainte Chapelle, now in the National Library, Paris
(MS. Lat. 17326). Both the MSS. show the contemporary peculiarity of
presenting Bible characters, excepting divine personages, apostles, and
evangelists in ordinary local costume. Paris, of course, is the city
where most, and perhaps the best, of these MSS. are preserved; but those
named above, in London, are also among the finest known examples.
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.
Through the thirteenth century is the epoch of the Gothic renaissance,
it is the fourteenth to which really belongs the title of the Golden
Age. The style of work remains precisely the same, only it grows. It
changes from the bud to the leaf. It casts off the severity and much of
the restraint of its earlier character. To the grace of youth it adds
beauty, the beauty of adolescence. To fourteenth-century illumination we
can give no higher praise than that it is beautiful. Not, indeed,
because of its deliberate limitations, but in spite of them. For after
ages have taught us that if in pure ornament and resplendent decorative
completeness the pages of the fourteenth century cannot be surpassed, in
miniature historiation it must take a second place. The skilled
illuminators of the later schools are the masters of the mere picture.
For surely no judge of art could possibly assert that the miniatures of
the Grunani Breviary or of the Brera Graduals as miniatures are inferior
to those of the Psalter of St. Louis, the Berry Bible, or the
Prayer-book of Margaret of Bavaria. Yet these are typical MSS. of the
highest rank. Hence we say that while the illumination of the Golden Age
of the art was beautiful, it was not absolutely perfect. It is not to be
taken by modern students as the only possible model or basis simply
because it was the best of its kind. There is no such despotism in art.
To those who think it the only possible form of book decoration, let it
be so by all means, but we may as well hope to clothe our soldiers in
chain or plate armour, and send the elite of our nobility on another
crusade to Jerusalem, or satisfy our universities with the _quod libets_
and _quiddities_ of the _trivium_ and _quadrivium_, as hope to make
popular to the England of the twentieth century the artistic tastes of
the fourteenth. We indulge in no such dreams. If we are to have
illuminated books, our own age must invent them. The illuminators of the
Bibles, Romances, Mirrors, and Chronicles of the fourteenth century no
doubt did their best, and we honour and praise them for it. We think
their work among the loveliest gratifications of the eye that can be
imagined. But the eye is very catholic--it has immense capacities for
enjoyment. The window of the soul opens on illimitable prospects, and if
the soul be satisfied for the time, it is not necessarily repleted for
ever. Golden ages are cyclical, and it may be that the glory of the
books of the future shall surpass all the glories of the past.
By 1350 France had absorbed all the antecedent varieties of
illumination. From France, therefore, spring all the succeeding styles
now considered national.
And as is most natural, these styles develop by proximity--the nearest
to French being Netherlandish. The next, as a result of immediate
intercourse, Italian. Then German, Spanish, and the rest, as intercourse
gave opportunity. It is not always an easy matter to say offhand whether
a MS. is French or Flemish. In the earlier days it is not easy to say
whether it be French or English, or even whether French or Italian. But
the distinctness comes later on.
In the fifteenth century the Italian, German, French, and English are
quite distinct varieties. Towards the sixteenth the Netherlandish is
quite as distinct. But the styles of Spain, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland,
though possessing features which identify them to an experienced eye,
are to the ordinary spectator merely sub-varieties of Netherlandish,
Italian, or German.
With regard to the distinctions of schools or local centres within the
same country, the evidence of probable origin has to be corroborated by
historic fact. It is not safe without further proof than that afforded
by general features to affirm that this or that MS. was executed at
Paris, Dijon, Amiens, or Limoges in France; or at Ghent, Bruges, or
elsewhere in Flanders; or whether a MS. be Rhenish or Saxon, Bavarian or
Westphalian, in Germany; Bolognese, Florentine, Siennese, Milanese, or
Neapolitan in Italy; or executed at Westminster, St. Albans, Exeter, or
elsewhere in England. Nevertheless the special characteristics of all
these schools are quite distinguishable. In the attempt to distinguish
them, although the diagnosis may be perfectly accurate, the actual facts
may be otherwise accounted for. Hence the danger to which even the
experienced connoisseur is liable. For example, certain MSS. are written
in a fine Bolognese hand, which it is proved were actually executed in
Flanders; others that one would feel sure were Netherlandish, were
illuminated in Spain. Some very fine typical Flemish miniatures were
painted in Italy; certain Florentine miniatures were the work of artists
residing in Rome. Milanese illumination is quite distinguishable from
Neapolitan, and Venetian from both, yet the school is not proof of the
_provenance_.
Illuminators, like other craftsmen, travelled from city to city, and
princes employed men, who resided in their patrons' palaces, who yet had
learned their art many leagues away. How often we find the names of
artists with the words Dallemagna, il Tedesco, le Poitevin, Veronese,
Franco, Crovata, etc., employed in Italian houses, indicating the place
of their nativity. So that even when we know every feature of the work
we have much to learn ere we can say with truth that it was executed in
such and such a city. We must take into account details which are liable
to escape the ordinary observer, such as quality of vellum or paper,
choice of pigments, mode of application, and other particulars quite
distinct from style of ornament or varieties of form in foliage. In the
Fitzwilliam Library at Cambridge is an Italian MS., the characteristics
of whose ornamentation are unequivocally French, but whose mode of
treatment shows not only that it is Italian but that it is Milanese, but
whether executed in Milan or not is more than anyone can affirm. In the
British Museum is a magnificent service-book called the Padua Missal,
but the probability is that the Paduan artist who painted its splendid
pages, painted them at Venice. That it was executed for Sta. Justina, at
Padua, is no proof that the work was done in that city.
In monastic times we have seen why the artist rarely signed his name.
After the thirteenth century the lay artist had no such scruples, and
hence we often find particulars of origin and purpose which explain all
we wish to know. But if the MSS. themselves do not contain the
particulars, very often the account-books of cathedrals and other
establishments for which the books were illuminated, give the details of
price and purpose, and add the names of the artists. The household
expense books, guild books, municipal records, and the journals of the
painters themselves are fertile sources of information. And if we seek
with sufficient diligence these will probably be the means by which it
may eventually be found.
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.
In addition to the expanding ivy leaf which forms the chief feature of
fourteenth-century book-ornament, we find the miniaturist as a further
improvement adding delicate colour in the faces. Also that instead of
the invariable lozenging or diapering of the background he occasionally
makes a background of plain burnished gold. And as if to prove that his
predecessors were really hampered with the restrictions imposed by their
imitations of painted glass, he begins to try his best to paint up his
miniatures into real pictures with high lights on draperies and shading
upon the folds. A certain amount of flatness, however, still remains,
but it scarcely seems to have been the intention or aim of the painter.
There is a similar flatness in the work of all the early schools of
painting, which had no reference whatever to the destination of the
picture. See, for instance, the Origny Treasure Book in the Print Room
at Berlin (MS. 38), and the Life of St. Denis in the National Library at
Paris (Nos. 2090-2), both MSS. dating somewhere about 1315. The drapery
shading in the latter MS. is no longer the work of the pen, but
brush-work in proper colour. The Westreenen Missal in the Museum at the
Hague, which dates about 1365, though not a French MS., is an example of
the fact that by the middle of the century the tradition of penwork
outline and flat-colouring had become pretty nearly obsolete.
The reign of the afflicted Charles VI. of France, disastrous in the
extreme to the material welfare of his own subjects, full of untold
misery to the poor, and of oppression to the growing community of
artisans and traders, was nevertheless, as regards literature and the
arts, a period of progress and even splendour. The King's incapacity, by
affording his uncles and brothers opportunities for fingering the
revenues during the self-appointed and irresponsible regencies, enabled
them to gratify their magnificent tastes in the purchasing of costly
furniture and the ordering of splendid books. Louis of Orleans, usually
credited with the worst of this prodigality, was by no means singular in
his conduct. His uncle, the Duke of Berry, while daily earning the
execrations of the tax-payers by his unscrupulous employment of the
public money, was constantly enriching his library, and both he and his
brothers and nephews were in the habit of sending priceless volumes,
illuminated by the best artists, as wedding and birthday gifts, to each
other, or their wives or acquaintances. We talk, and justly, of the fine
taste and noble love of literature of Jean de Berry. His contemporaries,
at least those beneath his own rank, looked upon him as a tyrant and
plunderer. His disastrous administration of Languedoc was described as
"one long fête where the excess of expenditure was rivalled only by the
excess of scandal." If the _marmousets_ could have hanged him they
would. In default they hanged his treasurer.
All this maladministration was very wrong, but we cannot afford to burn
the MSS. in consequence, for the Bible, the "Grandes Heures," and other
books once possessed by the wicked Duke, are among the most precious
relics of any age. Add to them the beautiful volumes of poetry and
romance composing the contemporary literature of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, and we have treasures that we dare not relinquish.
By the beginning of the fifteenth century pure French illumination was
losing its own characteristics and acquiring others. In the North, in
Flanders and Brabant, Franche-Comté and the Burgundian Dukedom
generally, it was becoming that peculiar kind of French which had
received the name of Burgundian. It can scarcely be said to be Flemish
enough to rank as Netherlandish, yet neither can it stand side by side
with "French of Paris."
Let us look at a few examples. There is the Book of Offices in the
Library of St. Geneviève at Paris (Bibl. Lat. 66), also the St.
Augustine in the same library. Also a small crowd of volumes in the
Royal Library at Brussels, another in the National Library at Paris. One
of the richest examples known is the "Psalter of the Convent of Salem,"
in the University Library at Heidelberg. Other grand MSS. are the two
volumes of the "Mutacion de Fortune" of Christine de Pisan and the "Cité
des Dames" of the same authoress. The volume of her poems, etc., in the
British Museum, is a marvellously fine work (Harl. 4431). The greater
part of this volume is in the earlier or "Berry" style, _i.e._ the fine
pen-sprays of ivy leaf of burnished gold. But the first grand border is
altogether transitional, consisting of the pen-sprays of golden ivy leaf
alternating with sprays of natural flowers. This innovation, it has been
said, was due to the school of van Eyck, but as no proof is forthcoming
that J. van Eyck ever worked on illuminating we may be content to say
that it arose about 1413, and that probably it came from Bruges. It is
the beginning of the Burgundian style. But the ornamental leafage is
different from ordinary Brugeois, inasmuch as it is "pearled" along the
central veins, and is not symmetrical. The pearling is perhaps a
suggestion from glass painting. It was very early adapted in German
foliage work. On the first fly-leaf are several signatures, including
the name and device of Louis Gruthuse: "Plus est en vous Gruthuse." The
miniatures still remain French with mostly panelled backgrounds, some
with landscape. It is evidently a transitional document.
[Illustration:
PSALTERM. ET OFFICIA
14TH CENT.
_Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 2897, fol. 184_]
[Illustration:
HEURES, ETC.
14TH CENT.
_Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 2952, fol. 22_]
The works of Christine de Pisan, the popular--one may fairly say
fashionable--authoress, were perhaps among the best known and most
widely read while Caxton was setting up his press at Westminster, as she
was among the most welcome guests at the Courts of Charles VI. and
Philip of Burgundy. She was the daughter of a distinguished Venetian
savant, Thomas de Pisan, who had come at the invitation of Charles le
Sage to Paris as "Astrologue du Roi." At the age of fifteen Christine,
who was as beautiful as she was accomplished, became the wife of a
Picard gentleman named Estienne Castel. Two years afterwards the death
of the King brought trouble upon her father, and with it sickness and
despondency. Then followed sorrow upon sorrow. Whilst she was herself
still burdened with the cares of early motherhood her father died, and
within nine years from her marriage the sudden death from contagion, of
her husband, to whom she was most fondly attached, left her a widow with
two little children dependent upon her, and with only what she herself
could earn as a means of livelihood. She was not yet twenty-six years
old. To assuage her misery she betook herself to study and the
composition of essays and poetry. Her works speedily brought her the
recognition of distinguished personages; her children were provided for,
and she herself soon acquired both fortune and reputation. Charles VI.
allowed her a pension, and she composed for his Queen, Isabella of
Bavaria, several important treatises. Among her numerous compositions
were "Les cens Histoires de Troyes" in verse, "Le Chemin de longue
estude", "La Mutacion de Fortune," and a Life of Charles V., the latter
composed at the request of Philip the Good of Burgundy. But the work
which sets off her wit and learning to the best advantage was an
allegorical essay on Womanhood, which she called "Le Trésor de la Cité
des Dames." Altogether her works include fifteen books and about sixty
smaller writings, which she dedicated to the King and Queen of France,
the Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans, and the princesses and princes of the
Court.
One beautifully illuminated copy of the Mutation of Fortune in two
volumes is a curious example of its title, for one volume of it is in
the National Library at Paris (fonds fr. 603) and the other in the Royal
Library at Munich. In the former we have her portrait. In a blue gown
she sits at her writing-desk busy at her work. On her head is the
muslin-draped and high-peaked "hennin." Beside her a table covered with
a green cloth and laden with crimson and violet-bound books and an
inkstand. Her chair has a high back, and the floor is of the usual kind
seen in illuminations; that is, as if composed of a parquetry of
coloured woodwork or of tiles of various kinds of marble. On the sill of
the Gothic-latticed window, through which we catch a glimpse of the blue
sky, stands a vase of flowers. Not perhaps an ideal lady's boudoir, but
still an apartment of taste, and an altogether charming little picture.
In the second miniature of the Munich volume Christine is standing in a
chamber--in the same costume as above described. The pictures on the
walls are--a fortress, a watchman, two knights, a prince with crown and
sceptre, seated on his throne, surrounded by courtiers; a duel; and a
martyr having his head struck off. Just such mediæval subjects as we may
expect in a fifteenth-century mansion.
In a copy of the "Cité des Dames" at Munich is another portrait of
Christine. The book is an Apology for the feminine sex, and it is well
thought out. It appears that the conversation of the time was not always
free from rather severe sarcasm concerning the ladies. We learn from Du
Verdier that the continuator of the Romance of the Rose narrowly escaped
most condign chastisement from some of the insulted sex at the French
Court for the base insinuations in his poem against the character of
women. Christine herself heartily disapproved of the Romance of the
Rose, and wrote a sharp criticism upon it. Her "Cité des Dames" is an
elaborate confutation of the opinion that women are naturally more
immoral and less capable of noble studies or high intellectual
attainments than men. In her introduction she says: "I reflected why men
are so unanimous in attributing wickedness to women. I examined my own
life and those of other women to learn why we should be worse than men,
since we also were created by God. I was sitting ashamed with bowed head
and eyes blinded with tears, resting my chin on my hands in my
elbow-chair, when a dazzling beam of Light flashed before me, which came
not from the sun, for it was late in the evening. I glanced up and saw
standing before me three female figures wearing crowns of gold, and with
radiant countenances. I crossed myself, whereupon one of the three
addressed me. 'Fear not, dear daughter, for we will counsel and help
thee. The aphorisms of the Philosophers are not Articles of Faith, but
simply the mists of error and self-deception.'" The three ladies or
goddesses are Fame, Prudence, and Justice, and they command Christine
under the supervision of Reason (or Commonsense) to build a city for the
noblest and best of her own sex. So the city was begun, and the elect,
allegorically, let into it. In varied ranks following one another came
goddesses and saintly women, Christian and heathen women--among them
walks as leader the Queen of the Amazons. "Queen" Ceres, who taught the
art and practice of agriculture. Queen Isis, who first led mankind to
the cultivation of plants. Arachne, who invented the arts of dyeing,
weaving, flax-growing, and spinning. Damphile, who discovered how to
breed silkworms. Queen Tomyris, who vanquished Cyrus. The noble
Sulpicia, who shared her husband's exile, and many others, among whom
may be seen Dame Sarah, the wife of Abraham, Penelope, Ruth, and the
Saints Katharine, Margaret, Lucia, and Dorothea. In the first miniature
on the left sits Christine with a coif upon her head and a great book on
her lap; on her left hand is the plan of her new city, while opposite
stand the three ladies already spoken of as her advisers, furnished with
building tools and giving her their advice. On the right she appears
again in elegant costume with hewn stones and a trowel assisted by two
workmen who are busily at work. Before her is an unfinished wall and
several completed towers. In two other miniatures the gradual progress
and entire completion of the city are shown, and in the foreground of
each Christine and her three patronesses as before. Other examples
deserving of extended notice are the Shrewsbury Romances (Roy. 15 E. 6)
and Augustine, Cité de Dieu (Roy. 14 D. 1), two great folios, the former
most interesting for its miniatures--the latter as a fair example of the
rougher kind of Lille work, bold in design, good drawing. The choice of
colours includes marone, blue, green, and gold. The ornaments, as usual,
consist of sprays of ivy leaf and grounds filled in with treillages of
natural flowers, among which are the daisy, viola tricolor, thistle,
cornbottle, and wild stock. Fruits and vegetables also, as grapes, field
peas, and strawberries. The miniatures include a few rather coarse
grisailles.
A little volume (Harl. 2936) contains exquisitely drawn Brugeois scrolls
in monochrome on grounds of the same colour or plain gold or black.
Lastly we may mention "Les Heures de la Dame de Saluces," otherwise
called the "Yemeniz Hours," in the British Museum (Add. 27967), a large
octavo, as an example of transitional Burgundian. Here the secondary
borders have mostly the penwork ivy leaf with Brugeois corners and with
strawberries, etc., in the midst of the sprays. Among the foliages
grotesque figures frequently appear. The principal pages, however, are
more like Harl. 4431, yet without the ivy-leaf tendrils. The miniatures
are still Gothic, but richer and deeper in colour than ordinary French
work. It would appear that two different artists were employed--one
decidedly French, the other Netherlandish, and of a more individual
character, still with French accessories. Every page has a border of
some kind. Among the flowers the thistle is peculiar in having a golden
cup next the down. The work generally resembles, in some parts, 4431
Harl.; in others, and perhaps more strongly, 15 E. 6. The colours are
chiefly blue, scarlet, rose-pink, green, and gold.
We have now pretty nearly worked our way into Flemish illumination. The
after-history of French as developed through the influence of Italy on
the schools of Paris and Tours must have a chapter to itself.
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. 1 E. 9--Their cause.
In a former chapter we left our native schools of illumination at work
on such MSS. as the Devonshire and Rouen Benedictionals, and with the
reputation of being the best schools of the kind in Christendom. Mention
also is made elsewhere in dealing with monastic art of the usages of the
_scriptoria_. Such usages, of course, could only obtain in houses where
scribes themselves were to be had. Hence we should discover, were it not
otherwise known, that writing and illumination, even in the monastic
age, were not confined absolutely to the cloister.
With respect to the secular scribes, who sometimes worked in the
monastery, sometimes at their own homes, in those days when the monastic
orders still did most of the book-production, there were three classes
of specialists. These were the _Librarii_ or ordinary copyists; the
_Notarii_ or law-scribes, whose business lay in copying deeds, charters,
and such-like instruments, and taking notes in the courts; and
_Paginators_ or _Illuminatores_. It sometimes happened, as we have said,
that in some monastery or other, no monastic was found qualified to
undertake any of these duties. It then fell to the prior or abbat to
seek the assistance of professional outsiders. The paging and
rubrication, putting in initials in the spaces left by the common
scribe, and, if needed, the addition of pictures or marginal drawings
and ornaments, caricatures, heraldic illustrations, etc., were the
proper work of the illuminator, but it often happened that the same man
had to do the whole work from the commencement to the finish. The
Chronicon Trudonense tells us: "Graduale unum propria manu formavit,
purgavit, pinxit, sulcabit, scripsit, illuminavit, musiceque notavit
syllabatim." Several of our old English chronicles, of which the MSS.
exist in the British Museum and elsewhere, seem to be of this
description.
Reference has been made to the _scriptoria_ at Winchester, _i.e._ at St.
Swithun's and the New Minster. It is the latter foundation which is
usually referred to in speaking of Winchester work. The Monastery of the
Holy Trinity or the New Minster was founded in the first year of his
reign by King Edward, son of Alfred, no doubt in obedience to his
father's wish, if not absolutely in the terms of his will. Its first
charter is dated 900 (for 901) and the second in 903. In the latter
document the abbey is spoken of as dedicated to the Holy Trinity, the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and to St. Peter, and is amply endowed under the
Augustinian Rule. In 965, not without trouble and resistance, it was
converted into a Benedictine abbey. In 968 Ethelgar, who had been
trained at Glastonbury and Abingdon, became abbat, and from this time
the New Minster became famous for both discipline and the production of
MSS. As we walk along the High Street of Winchester now we find the
story in moss-grown stones or other memorials how, among other methods,
William the Norman punished the monks for their English warlike
proclivities by walling them up nearly close to their church with the
walls of his royal palace. In the old time, when the two monasteries
stood side by side--St. Swithun's is close behind the New Minster--"so
closely packed together," says the old chronicler,[37] "were the two
communities of St. Swithun and St. Peter that between the foundation of
their respective buildings there was barely room for a man to pass
along. The choral service of one monastery conflicted with that of the
other, so that both were spoiled, and the ringing of their bells
together produced a horrid discord." The result of this was, first the
above-mentioned hemming in of the younger establishment and eventually
its migration to another site in Hyde Meadow. Here while the monastic
buildings suffered much through fires and other disasters, the Rule
remained until 1538, when it was surrendered into the King's hands, and
the abbat, prior, and nineteen monks, the last survivors of this
once-famous foundation, were pensioned.
[37] Dugdale, _Monasticon_.
The scriptorium at St. Alban's, to which the fame of book production in
the Middle Ages very largely reverted, was not founded until nearly
three centuries after the foundation of that abbey. The library began
with twenty-eight notable volumes, and eight Psalters, a book of
collects, another of epistles, and _Evangelia legenda per annum_, two
Gospel-books bound in gold and silver and set with gems, together with
other necessary volumes for ordinary use. Almost every succeeding abbat
contributed something to the library shelves. Geoffrey, the sixteenth
abbat, a Norman who once had a school at Dunstable, and who was both a
popular and liberal ruler, enriched the library with a Missal bound in
gold, another incomparably illuminated and beautifully written, and also
a Psalter richly illuminated, a Benedictional, and others. His
successor, Ralph Gubiun, also gave a number of MSS. Robert de Gosham,
the next abbat, gave "very many" books, which he had caused to be
written and sumptuously bound for the purpose. And Abbat Simon, who
followed in 1166, created the office of historiographer to the abbey,
repaired and enlarged the scriptorium, and kept two or three of the
cleverest writers constantly employed in transcription, and ordained
that for the future every abbat should maintain at least one suitable
and capable scribe. Among the many choice MSS. added by Abbat Simon was
a beautiful copy of the Bible specially written with the greatest care
and exactness. In addition he presented the library with all his own
precious collection. Another liberal benefactor was John de Cell, a man
of vast learning in grammar and poetry, and also a practitioner in
medicine. Being unfit for household management, he committed the secular
affairs of the abbey to his prior Reymund, by whose zeal many noble and
valuable books were transcribed for the library. And so grew in
magnitude and importance the great collection which supplied Roger of
Wendover and Matthew Paris with materials for their famous histories.
St. Alban's, indeed, was at one period perhaps the most noted of all the
English centres of book production. To dilate on other centres, such as
Westminster, Exeter, Worcester, Norwich, or York, would lead us too far
afield for a mere handbook like the present. Enough has been said to
give a good idea of what our English abbats and priors were in the habit
of doing for art and letters.
[Illustration:
PSALTERIUM CUM CANTICIS
A.D. 1240
_Brit. Mus. Roy. MS. 2, A. xxii, fol. 14_]
[Illustration:
EPISTRE AU ROY RICH. 2
C. 1375
_Brit. Mus. Roy. MS. 20 B, vi, fol. 1_]
Since 980 a considerable quantity of transcription and illumination must
have been produced, notwithstanding disquiet, turbulence, and war. At
Westminster the traditions of illumination seem to have followed the
methods of the earlier Winchester school. But in the twelfth century
English work shows, on the whole, a greater likeness to the contemporary
work of Germany. Of Westminster work an example occurs among the Royal
MSS. (2 A. 22). The subject is the Psalter, and the text is the handsome
style of penmanship known as English Gothic of the latter part of the
twelfth century. It would appear from the frequent occurrence of this
particular service-book that it held the place of the later Book of
Hours, and so we may expect a great similarity among different copies,
both in the selection of the illustrations and their mode of treatment.
It was usual in all such volumes to prefix to the text a series of
subjects from the Old and New Testaments and the Lives of the Saints.
Here we have them from the Life of the Virgin and from the Life of
David, by no means unworthy samples of the school. One represents the
Virgin and Child seated on a seat of the Germano-Byzantine type beneath
an arch and within a square frame-border. The border seems first to have
been flatly painted in two colours, pale blue and pale red ochre, and on
this a foliage scroll of recurring forms in a bold dull red outline
finely relieved with white. This is more or less repeated as the form of
border to the other illuminations. Outside the whole is a characteristic
slender frame of bright green in two tints. The arch overhead has two
bands of vermilion, with white edge-reliefs and a central band of blue,
again in two tints, with pairs of black cross-bars every half-inch or so
resting on the capitals of the two pillars which form the sides of the
scene. These pillars have each a green abacus at the top of each capital
and scarlet bead below. Each pillar is of dappled red, marble-like
porphyry, with plinths of scarlet and blue. Tiers of differently
coloured steps separated by bands of scarlet, green, etc., form the
seat. The Virgin wears the hood, cape, and robe of the Benedictine nun,
but coloured grey, chocolate, and blue respectively. An under garment of
pale amber completes her dress. The infant wears an amber tunic, wrapped
in a scarlet robe. A very common embroidery of the drapery consists of
little stars or triads of white studs. This also is a characteristic of
German and early Netherlandish illumination. There is a rich gold
brocade border to the blue robe of the Virgin. Both mother and child
have round nimbuses, the former in plain circular bands of russet and
orange, the latter consisting of bands of pale blue surmounted by a
scarlet cross. Two lumps of green glass or metal hang from the arch. The
background is a plate of gold. The flesh tones are livid, being of a
pale greenish ochre tint. One other of the illuminations of this
exceedingly interesting MS. may be mentioned, viz. the David playing his
harp. He also wears three garments--a tunic of white shaded with pale
blue, then another of lavender or lilac and having rich brocaded
borders, and, lastly, a pallium or robe of pale chocolate lined with
ermine; orange-coloured hose. The throne, like the previous one, is of
several colours--slate-blue, green, orange, and white, with a buff
cushion. Here is a back to the throne of a deep blue, with a background,
as before, of bright flat gold. The white moulding is shaded with pale
green, with bluish slate corners. The outer border is of the pale red
ochre or pink, so common in later work in contrast with deep blue. An
outer frame or edging of green completes the page. The harp is not
gilded, but of a drab hue, with two quatrefoil studs or orifices in the
frame, relieved as usual with fine edges of white. Compare this MS. with
one in the Library at Lambeth.
The English illumination of the thirteenth century is so like that of
France that it is often difficult to determine its real nationality.
There is occasionally some feature which we know from other sources to
be English, or some circumstance in the history of the MS. which fixes
its origin, as, for example, in the Additional MS. 24686, known as the
Tenison Psalter. Sir E.M. Thompson also describes this MS. in the
_Bibliographica_, i. 397. But it was previously described at some length
by Sir Edward Bond in the Fine Arts _Quarterly Review_. The Psalter,
which has had a somewhat eventful history, is one of the best examples
of English thirteenth-century illumination. At least, this may be said
of the early portion of it, for while it is illuminated throughout, only
the first gathering is in the earlier manner. The peculiar value to the
student lies in the fact that although quite in the same style as
contemporary French work, it is the work of an English illuminator. The
colouring, however, is not confined, as in somewhat earlier examples, to
blue and dull pale rose or paled red ochre and gold. It gives us
scarlet, crimson-lake, green, and brown, besides the blue and pink and
bright gold which suggests some German influences. The line fillings are
somewhat peculiar as having silver tracery, on the blue, side by side
with golden tracery on the crimson. The full ivy leaf appears in the
long branch work of the borders, and some of the initials still retain
the bird or dragon forms in their construction. The compound bar-frame,
gold and traceried colour side by side, is however already taking the
place of the mere sweeping tail or branch. But perhaps the best
indication of English design is the presence of a number of grotesque
animals, with birds and occasional humorous scenes disposed, not in
framed miniatures, but simply among the stems and coils of the foliage.
This is a form of illustration much appreciated by English illuminators
at all times, though it appears also in much continental work. Among
other English MSS. which display this taste we may point out Arund. 83,
which among many other treatises and curious compositions, such as the
"Turris Sapientiæ" and a valuable calendar, in which are notes on the
Arundels of Wemme, contains a psalter with anthems, etc., and hence is
known as the Arundel Psalter. Its date is probably between 1330 and
1380.
The drolleries are very funny, and the other illuminations very
instructive and curious. Some of them contain really good
pen-drawing--refined, expressive, and graceful, but above all typical of
English draughtsmanship. In a little scene of the adoration of the Magi
(folio 125) the kings are costumed like our Henry III., as we find him
'n sculpture, wall paintings, etc. Over a very expressive picture of the
three living and the three dead occur the lines, each over a figure:
"Ich am afert Lo wet ich se Methinketh hit beth deueles thre. Ich wes
welfair Such scheltou be For godes loue be wer by me" (folio 128).[38]
The three living in this illumination are three fashionable ladies--no
doubt princesses, for they wear crowns. Generally they are men, as at
Lutterworth in the sculptures over the door, and in the famous fresco of
Gozzoli at Pisa. The subject occurs sometimes in Books of Hours.
[38] "I am afraid. Lo, what I see Methinketh it be devils three. I was
well fair. Such shalt thou be. For love of God beware by me."
Many MSS. of this period and later have hunting scenes, shooting
practice, and games.
In MS. 264, Misc., Bodl. Lib., Oxford, there are such scenes, one being
a game at "Blind Man's Buff," or as literally here "Hoodman Blind," for
the latter actually wear a hood drawn down over his head and shoulders,
and three girls are having a fine game with him. The goldfinch or linnet
looking on from the border seems to enjoy the fun. Another fine source
of similar things is the Louterell Psalter in the British Museum. In
this also are some richly diapered backgrounds and exquisite border
bands. This MS. dates about 1340. But the gem of English
fourteenth-century illumination is the Royal MS. (2 C. 7) called Queen
Mary's Psalter, not as being painted for her, since it had been painted
nearly two centuries before she ever saw it. But in the year (?) 1553,
being about to be sent abroad, it was stopped by a customs officer and
presented to Queen Mary Tudor. It is bound in what appears to be the
binding put on it by the Queen--_i.e._ crimson velvet embroidered on
each cover with a large pomegranate, and having gilt corner protections
and (once upon a time) golden clasps. The clasps are gone, but the
plates remain riveted on the covers, engraven with the Tudor badges. The
MS. contains 320 large octavo leaves, the first fifty-six being taken up
with illuminated illustrations of biblical history from the Creation to
the death of Solomon. These pictures are arranged in pairs one over the
other, and to each one is given a description in French, taken sometimes
from the canonical text, sometimes from an apocryphal one. The drawings
are really exquisite, they are so fine, so delicately yet so cleverly
sketched. They are not coloured in full body-colours, but just
suggestively, the draperies being washed over in thin tints, the folds
well defined, but lightly shaded. Next after these subjects follows the
Psalter with miniatures of New Testament scenes and figures of saints
accompanied with most beautiful initials and ornaments, illuminated by a
thoroughly practised hand, for the artist of this volume was by no means
a novice at his work. A good example of it is given in _Bibliographica_,
pl. 7 [23], which forms the frontispiece to vol. i., and one or two
outlines in the folio catalogue of the Arundel MSS.
Arund. MS. 84 is also a good example of thirteenth-century illumination
to a rather unpromising subject, being a Latin translation of Euclid
from the Arabic by Athelard of Bath. It is illustrated with diagrams.
Speaking of fourteenth-century illumination brings us to notice a very
striking change which takes place in the reign of Richard II. in the
character of English illumination. In the British Museum (Roy. 20 B. 6)
is a MS. entitled an Epistle to Richard II., written, it is said, in
Paris, in which the illuminations and foliages are purely French, but
which are the type of all the English work of the same date. Take, for
example, the MS. already spoken of (Roy. 2 A. 22), produced in the
scriptorium at Westminster Abbey. Compare with it a Bible written for
the use of Salisbury, and dated 1254. Then add the Tenison Psalter, the
Arundel Psalter, illuminated 1310-20. If these MSS. be compared,
however, with Lansd. 451, or Roy. 1 E. 9, the least accustomed eye must
notice the entire and almost startling change in the luxuriance and
character of the flowers and foliages which constitute the initial and
border decorations. It is not merely a development. There are additional
features, but that these features are added, as usual, from France, is
contradicted by reference to Roy. 20 B. 6, mentioned above. The new
features are not French. The question is, where did they come from?
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.
It has been suggested by a high authority that the immediate sources of
the third period of English illumination were Netherlandish, but
probable as this seems at first sight, there is another explanation
which seems to the present writer to be a better one. As already pointed
out, the influence on English work before 1377, notwithstanding
political conditions, are distinctly French. After this date, though the
artistic relation with France is not broken off, yet long before 1390 we
find this new influence which is not French, and for which we have no
special evidence that it is Netherlandish. If we go, however, a little
farther afield, we shall find it. In the new work is a softer kind of
foliage and a greater variety of sweet colour, and both these
characteristics are found in a school of illumination that was being
formed under the auspices of the Emperor Charles IV. at Prag in Bohemia.
The artists in that capital who executed the famous Golden Bull and
commenced the grand Wenzel Bible were a select band of Frenchmen and
Italians; the combined result of whose designs and labours was this very
mixture of Gothic ivy leaf and thorn with the softer Othonian and Roman
foliages and a new scheme of colour. Charles IV., son of that famous
John of Luxembourg, the blind king of Bohemia, who perished at Crécy,
was himself King of Bohemia as well as Emperor, and a man of brilliant
personal accomplishments and cultivated tastes in literature and art.
Becoming Emperor the very next year after his succession to the throne
of Bohemia, he fixed his residence at Prag, where he began the building
of the new city, and founded a university on the model of that of Paris,
where he had studied, and whence he had married his first wife, Blanche,
daughter of Charles, Count of Valois. His university soon attracted some
thousands of students, and with them no small crowd of literary men and
artists, both from France and Italy. The great fact, however, to
remember about Charles IV. is the Golden Bull, the masterly scheme by
which all matters concerning the election to the Empire were in future
to be settled. All the Constitutions were written in a book called, from
the _bulla_ or seal of gold which was appended to it, the Golden Bull,
of which the text was drawn up either at Metz or Nuremberg in 1356, and
many copies distributed throughout the Empire. It is further affirmed
that the absolute original is at Frankfort. But the splendid copy made
by order of the Emperor Wenzel in 1400 is still preserved in the
Imperial Library at Vienna. And as it is ah example of the style of
illumination practised in Prag during the reign of Charles IV., we may
call it Bohemian. It is true that the foliages are a little more
luxuriant in this Wenzel-book than in the earliest examples of the style
seen in England, but the twenty years which had elapsed would easily
account for this difference. As compared, however, with either French or
Netherlandish, the new English style shows a much greater similarity to
the work then being done in Lower Bavaria. In these soft curling
foliages and the fresh carnations of the flesh-tints of the Prag and
Nuremberg illuminators we may trace the actual source of the remarkable
transformation seen in English illumination after the marriage of
Richard II.
Charles IV. was four times married. His successor, Wenzel, whose ghastly
dissipations can only be regarded as the terrible proofs of insanity,
was the child of his third wife. His fourth wife, the beautiful daughter
of the Duke of Pomerania and Stettin, had four children, of whom
Sigismund, the eldest, afterwards succeeded Wenzel as emperor, and Anne,
the third, came to England as the wife of Richard II. The magnificence
of her equipage and the crowd of persons who formed her retinue are
noticed by contemporary writers, and the effect upon English manners was
instantaneous. Her beauty, sweetness of manners, and culture rendered
her at once not merely the idol of her husband, who, says Walsingham,
"could scarcely bear her to be out of his sight," but universally
beloved by all the English nation.
To her the first English writer on heraldry, John of Guildford dedicated
his book, and the artists who came with her from her luxurious home at
Prag would naturally become the leaders of taste in their adopted
country. After a while, indeed, the numbers of countrymen of the Queen
were looked upon as the cause of extortions practised on the English
people in order to supply the money lavished on these foreigners. More
than once is this grievance referred to. In an old MS. in the Harley
Library (2261), containing a fifteenth-century translation of Higden's
Polychronicon, these foreigners are made responsible for at least one
fashionable extravagance: "Anne qwene of Ynglonde dyede in this year
(1393) at Schene the viith day of the monethe of Janius, on the day of
Pentecoste: the dethe of whom the Kynge sorowede insomoche that he
causede the maner there to be pullede downe, and wolde not comme in eny
place by oon yere folowynge where sche hade be, the churche excepte;
whiche was beryede in the churche of Westmonastery, in the feste of
seynte Anne nexte folowynge, with grete honoure and solennite. That
qwene Anne purchased of the pope that the feste of Seynte Anne scholde
be solenniysed in Ynglonde. The dethe of this qwene Anne induced grete
hevynesse to noble men and to commune peple also, for sche causede noo
lytelle profite to the realme. But mony abusions comme from Boemia into
Englonde with this qwene, and specially schoone with longe pykes,
insomoche that they cowthe not go untylle that thei were tyede to theire
legges, usenge that tyme cheynes of silvyr at the pykes of theire
schoone."
It is a fact that the Bohemian manner of illumination, with its
three-lobed and vari-coloured foliages, became the fashion in every
English centre of illumination. In the preceding remarks we have
endeavoured to account for it. That the same style went from Prag to
Nuremberg may be only the natural _result_ of its being carried in the
marriage and retinue of the Princess Margaret, Anne's half-sister, who
became the wife of the Burggrave John.
Quite a similar MS. to those executed in the reign of Richard II. in
England and those of Bohemia is the Wilhelm van Oransse of Wolfram v.
Eschenbach, now in the Imperial Library at Vienna. A similar, but
inferior, work exists in the Prayer-book written by Josse de Weronar in
the British Museum (Add. 15690). The English foliages never show quite
all the varieties of colour seen in the continental examples, but the
golden diapers and pounced gold patterns are quite as elaborate. See
this work, however, in Arundel 83. It appears also in the mural
paintings of the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth
centuries. No doubt the English art of the fourteenth century is of
French origin--so mainly is that of Bohemia--for Charles IV. was brought
up at the Court of France. Further than this, we think we are justified
in tracing the new elements in Bohemian to Italy, and those in English
to Bohemia. The most striking proof is not only the foliages, but the
change from the long, colourless faces of French miniatures to the plump
and ruddy countenances seen, for example, in the Lancastrian MSS. in the
Record Office and in Harl. 7026[39] of the British Museum. Of course,
this suggestion of source is not put forward as a dead certainty, but it
affords this probability that as the style suddenly arose during the
lifetime of Anne of Bohemia--and she was the acknowledged leader of
fashion--so her tastes in respect of illuminated books and heraldic
decoration would become those of her new subjects. Let us examine this
fifteenth-century English work, and for this purpose let us take the
great illuminated Bible in the Royal Library, 1 E. 9. It is an enormous
folio, and rather unwieldly, but a most interesting example of the new
style. Its initials are large, richly illuminated in gold and attractive
colours. It has well-executed histories within the initials, and boldly
designed border frames, elegantly adorned with foliages and conventional
or idealised flowers. Perhaps the most noticeable feature is the
beautiful, decorative foliage work in the limbs of the letters--itself a
South German peculiarity--then the alternation of colours without
interrupting the design, the profusion of foliage modelling in the
backgrounds of the letter panels outside the historiations. The next
thing is the bold use of minium side by side even with pure rose-petal
colour, pale bright cerulean blue, and bright gold. Lastly, the immense
variety of leaf-forms, based on the three, five, and seven-lobed
groupings of the typical form. The coil and spiral are freely used as
the groundwork, and the colours alternated as the coils or spirals
change from front to back of the leaf.
[39] The Lovell Psalter.
[Illustration:
MISSALE (SARUM USE)
14TH CENT. (LATE)
_Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 2785, fol. 194 v._]
[Illustration:
HORÆ E. MAR. VIESIS.
15TH CENT. (EARLY)
_Brit. Mus. Roy. Ms. 2, A. xviii, fol. 55_]
Backgrounds of miniature histories are treated as in the Bohemian
MSS.--Wilhelm v. Oransse, for example--that is, with fine golden
tracery-patterns on deep, rich colours. The figure-painting is vastly
improved--the features now being actually painted and modelled as in
modern portrait painting, not merely indicated by pen strokes. The
flesh-tints as previously noticed are bright and ruddy. The principal
colours used on the foliages are blue, crimson, of various depths, and
bright vermilion, with occasional admission of bright green and paled
red ochre. Very similar to 1 E. 9 is Harl. 1892, and among other MSS.
that may be studied with this one is 2 A. 18--a book of Offices, very
sweetly illuminated, and full of typical examples of treatment both of
architectural design and treillages of foliage.
The Gothic pilasters are filled with the same kind of coiling and spiral
leaves and ribbons that are used in 1 E. 9 and Harl. 1892, the
backgrounds of the miniatures enriched with fine gold patterns. The
furniture and costumes indicate the later years of the reign of Richard
II., being similar to those shown in the miniatures of Harl. 1319, which
relates the story of Richard's misfortunes. A few miniatures of saints
accompany the prayers to them. One of the saints is peculiar, being the
Prior of Bridlington, perhaps the "Robertus scriba" who copied certain
theological treatises for the library, and who lived in the time of
Stephen or Henry II.
In the beautiful initial D is the figure of a lady praying, the first
few words of the prayer being written on a floating ribbon above her
head. A fine panelling of black and gold forms the background. The
lady's costume is that of the end of the fourteenth century, her
head-dress being somewhat lower than that worn in the time of Isabella
of Bavaria; in other respects she recalls the figure of Christine de
Pisan in Harl. 4431--one of the fine MSS. of the French school. As the
psalter or offices was once the property of the Grandison family, as is
shown by the numerous entries respecting them in the calendar, no doubt
this lady was the first owner of the MS., and probably the same as shown
in the beautiful miniature of the Annunciation previously given. Many
charming initials follow this one, and brightly coloured bracket
treillages and borders are given in profusion, introducing every variety
of coloured ideal leaf-form known to the art of the time. It seems
probable from its style and the costumes that the MS. was executed for
the Lady Margaret, widow of Thomas, the last Lord Grandison, who died in
1376, and given to her by Sir John Tuddenham, her second husband. A
better model for the modern illuminator could not easily be found. Other
examples may be briefly enumerated, in 2 B. 8, 2 B. 10, 2 B. 1, 2 B. 12
and 13, 18 A. 12, 18 C. 26, Harl. 1719, 1892, etc. The Psalter 2 B. 8
has the good fortune to be dated, and its purpose and other particulars
clearly set forth in a statement at the beginning of the volume. The
gist of this is that it was composed at the instance of the Lady Joan
Princess of Wales, mother of Richard II., and that it was executed by
Brother John Somour (Seymour), a Franciscan, in 1380. Thus the
illumination of it would probably be done about the time, of the young
Queen's arrival in England. The Princess Joan died July 8th, 1385. The
work corresponds with this date. The Grandison Psalter is perhaps
somewhat later than Roy. 2 B. 1, and the rest are later still.
[Illustration:
VEGETIUS FOUR BOOKS OF KNIGHTHOOD
(DE RE MILITARI)
15TH CENT.
_Brit. Mus. Roy. MS. 18 A. xii, f. 1_]
[Illustration:
PSALTERIUM
C. 1470
_Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 1719, fol. 73 v._]
One rather fine example is seen in Arund. MS. 109, a folio called the
Melreth Missal, because given by William Melreth, Alderman of London, to
the church of St. Lawrence, Old Jewry. He died in 1446.
For topographical miniature a good example occurs in Roy. 16 F. 2, which
contains a grand view of London, including the Tower, but this MS. is
probably not of genuine English production. Nor is Roy. 19 C. 8, though
a very interesting example as regards costume and local usages. The
genuine English work of which Arund. 109 is a type has received the name
of Lancastrian, as falling to the reigns of the three Lancastrian
kings--Henry IV., V., and VI.
In the reign of Edward IV. we meet with the introduction of Flemish
illumination, which gradually supersedes the native style, and by the
time of Henry VII. the latter has almost disappeared. Its final
extinction, however, was left for the sixteenth century, when either
Flemish or Italian renaissance work entirely took its place. By the time
of Queen Elizabeth English illumination was a thing of the past.
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 MSS. in the British Museum--The white-vine style
superseded by the classical renaissance.
Considering the position occupied by the Roman Empire as the civiliser
of Europe, it is not a little curious and somewhat surprising to find
that in the twelfth century, when German and French artists were doing
such good and even admirable work, that of Italy was almost barbaric. A
MS. in the Vatican (4922) is shown as a proof of this. It is not an
obscure sort of book that might have been written by a merely devout but
untrained monk for his own use, but a work of importance executed for no
less a personage than the celebrated Countess Matilda. The scribe was
Donizo, a monk of the Benedictine Abbey of Canossa. It is of the early
or præ-Carolingian type, rather inclined to Byzantine, but with the big
hands and aimless expression of all semi-barbaric work. Yet it has a
certain delicacy and carefulness. In Rome itself during the ninth
century barbarism was at its very lowest point. Only the sea-port towns
had any notion of what was being done in other places. Painting was
practised, it is true, so was mosaic, but the worst of Oriental carpets
would be a masterpiece of elegance beside anything done in Italy.
Whatever gleams of artistic intelligence appear, they certainly emanated
from Ravenna or Pavia. But as there were no wealthy and peaceful courts,
no indolent, high-bred, luxurious courtiers during that dark and
troublous period, miniature or illumination had no call for existence.
In the twelfth century book-illustration consisted simply of
pen-sketching of the most elementary kind. The Lombards alone produced
anything like illumination. A sort of roll containing pictures of the
various scenes of the Old and New Testaments which represented the
leading doctrines of the Church, and which used to hang over the pulpit
as the preacher discoursed upon them, is the only representative of the
time. Such a roll was called an "Exultet" from its first word, which is
the beginning of the line "Exultet jam Angelica turba cælorum" of the
hymn for the benediction of the paschal wax tapers on Easter Eve.
Several of these "Exultets" are still kept in the Cathedral at Pisa, and
in the Barberini and Minerva Libraries in Rome.[40] Of course the
pictures are upside down to the reader, so as to be right for the
congregation.
[40] See one in British Mus., Add. MS. 30337, and description of it in
_Journ. of the Archæol. Assoc._ vol. 34, p. 321.
Very little progress was made, as we may imagine, until after the great
revival movement begun by Cimabue, Giotto, and their contemporaries,
about the middle of the thirteenth century. But before taking up any
inquiry into Italian work generally we must not omit reference to the
remarkable MSS. produced at La Cava and Monte Cassino during the
Franco-Lombard period. Some idea has already been furnished in dealing
with Celtic MSS. and the foundations begun by Columbanus and his
scholars. Indeed, the general character of these Lombard MSS. is seen in
the Franco-Celtic. The distinguishing feature, if there be one, is the
frequent recurrence among the interlacements of the _white dog_. The La
Cava Library, which was one of the finest in Italy, has been transferred
to Naples. Monte Cassino still continues and maintains not only a
library but a printing press, from which the learned fathers have issued
at least one great work on the subject of Cassinese palæography. Of all
the præ-Carolingian hands, Lombardic or Lombardesque was certainly the
most peculiar, and is perhaps the most difficult to read. One evidence
of this is the diversity of opinion on the true reading of certain
proper names in the original MS. containing the oldest text of Tacitus
which happens to be a Lombard MS. The characters and other examples of
the eleventh to the thirteenth century that have been published at Monte
Cassino, however, fully illustrate the peculiarities of the handwriting,
and give besides several splendid examples of calligraphy.[41]
[41] The La Cava MSS. have been described by P. Gillaume in an essay
published at Naples, 1877, and those of Monte Cassino by A. Caravita,
Monte Cassino, 1860-71.
One of the earliest illuminated Italian MS. which bears a date is a
Volume of Letters of St. Bernard, now in the Library of Laon. It is very
seldom that the earlier scribes and illuminators who produced Italian
MSS. or worked in Italy were Italians. They were usually foreigners and
mostly Frenchmen, and the art was looked upon at the beginning of the
fourteenth century as a French art. This very decided example of Italian
work is already different from the French work of the same period. The
profile foliages have already acquired that peculiar trick of sudden
change and reversion of curve, showing the other side of a leaf with
change of colour, which is a marked characteristic of all
fourteenth-century Italian illumination. For examples of it, the
Bolognese Law Books, Decretals, and such-like, afford frequent
illustration. Before leaving this first-quoted MS., we may say that it
points to France rather than to Germany or Lombardy for its general form
of design, but the foliages are quite of another kind. Another Laon MS.
(352) shows the same treatment of foliage, but in effect more like what
may be considered as the typical Italian style seen in the famous
Avignon Bible of the anti-pope, Clement VII. (Robert of Geneva), which
dates between 1378 and 1394.[42]
[42] See Humphreys, _Illum. Books of the Middle Ages_, pl. 16; and
Silvestre, _Paléographie Universelle_, pl. 117.
A further example still more powerful in expression and skilful in
manipulation is seen in a copy of the Poems of Convenevole da Prato, in
the British Museum (Roy. 6 E. 9), executed for King Robert of Naples, a
patron of Giotto (1276-1337), which, in comparison with the Laon Letters
of St. Bernard of about the same date, is even still more Italian.