Lessons in the Art of Illuminating Part 1

Lessons in the Art of Illuminating.

by W. J. Loftie.

THE ART OF ILLUMINATING.

GENERAL SKETCH.

Perhaps the art of Illumination, although it is closely connected with that of Writing, may be ent.i.tled to a separate history. Men could write long before it occurred to them to ornament their writings: and the modern student will find that what he looks upon as genuine illumination is not to be traced back many centuries. True one or two Roman ma.n.u.scripts are in existence which may be dated soon after A.D.

200, and which are ill.u.s.trated rather than illuminated with pictures.

But the medieval art, and especially that branch of it which flourished in our own country, has a different origin, and sprang from the system, not of ill.u.s.tration, but of pure ornamentation, which prevailed in Ireland before the eighth century, but which reached its highest development among the Oriental Moslems. The works of the Irish school were for long and are sometimes still called "Anglo-Saxon," and there can be no doubt that the Irish missionaries brought with them to Iona and to Lindisfarne the traditions and practice of the art, which they taught, with Christianity, to the heathens of England. I will therefore refer the reader who desires to know more of palaeography in general, and of the princ.i.p.al foreign schools of the art of writing, to the great works of M. Sylvestre, of Messieurs Wyatt and Tymms, of Henry Shaw, and Miss Stokes, and to various isolated papers in the Transactions of the Antiquarian Societies; and I will begin with the earliest practice of the art in our own country and by our own ancestors.

During the eighth century rivalry to Irish art sprung up in the south; and the immediate followers of St. Augustine of Canterbury founded a scriptorium which produced many fine specimens. In less than two centuries a very high standard had been reached, and many of my readers will remember the Utrecht Psalter, as it is called, which, though it is one of the oldest Anglo-Saxon MSS. now preserved, is full of spirited drawings of figures and of illuminated capital letters.

The volume formerly belonged to England, but was lost, and subsequently turned up in Holland. By the tenth century the art had reached such a pitch of perfection that we find a charter of King Edgar wholly written in letters of gold. The Duke of Devons.h.i.+re possesses a volume written and illuminated for Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester from 963 to 984, by a "scriptor" named G.o.demann, afterwards Abbot of Thorney, the first English artist with whose name we are acquainted, if we except his more famous contemporary, Archbishop Dunstan, whose skill in metal work is better remembered than his powers as an illuminator. The wonderful Irish MSS. the Book of Kells, which is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, the Book of Durham, and others more curious than beautiful, belong to a slightly earlier period, perhaps to the ninth century, as Miss Stokes has suggested.

Many schools of writing throughout England were destroyed in the Danish wars, and the princes of the Norman race did little to encourage literary art. Though one or two interesting MSS. of this period survive, it is not until the accession of the Angevins that English writing makes another distinct advance. By the beginning of the thirteenth century the art had risen to the highest pitch it has ever reached. The scriptorium of St. Albans was the most celebrated.

The works of Matthew Paris written there are still extant, and testify, by the character of the pictures and colored letters, to a purity of style and to the existence of a living and growing art which has never been surpa.s.sed in this country. It is believed that the numerous little Bibles of this period were chiefly written at Canterbury, and certainly, as examples of what could be done before printing, are most marvellous. One of these MSS. is before me as I write. The written part of the page measures 2-5/8 inches in width and 3-3/4 inches in height, and the book is scarcely more than an inch thick, yet it contains, on pages of fine vellum in a minute almost microscopic hand, the whole Bible and Apocrypha. The beginning of each book has a miniature representing a Scripture scene, and a larger miniature, representing the genealogy of the Saviour, is at the beginning of Genesis. Although this is the smallest complete Bible I have met with, others very little larger are in the British Museum, and with them one, of folio size, exquisitely ornamented in the same style, which bears the name of the artist, "Wills. Devoniensis,"

William of Devons.h.i.+re. Besides Chronicles and Bibles the thirteenth century produced Psalters, the form and character of which were eventually enlarged and grew into the well-known "Horae," or books of devotional "Hours," which were illuminated in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Placing side by side a number of Psalters and Hours, and tracing by comparison the prevalence of single sets of designs--all, however, originating in the wonderful vitality of the thirteenth century--is a very interesting study, though seldom possible. It was possible to make such a comparison, however, in 1874, when a large number of magnificently illuminated books were exhibited together at the rooms of the Burlington Club in London. It was then seen that when the form and subject of a decoration were once invented they remained fixed for all generations. A Psalter of the thirteenth century, probably of Flemish execution, which was in the collection of Mr. Bragge, was ornamented with borders containing grotesque figures, and had a calendar at the beginning, every page of which represented a scene appropriate to the month, with the proper sign of the zodiac. Thus, under January there was a great hooded fire-place, and a little figure of a man seated and warming himself. The chimney formed a kind of border to the page, and at the top was a stork on her nest feeding her brood. This MS. was so early that some good judges did not hesitate to a.s.sign it to the end of the twelfth century. Close to it was a Book of Hours, written in the fifteenth if not early in the sixteenth century, and under January we have the self-same scene, though the grotesqueness, and indeed much of the quaint beauty of the design has disappeared. It is the same with scriptural and ritual scenes. The Bibles always had the same set of pictures; the Psalter and Hours the same subjects; and the same arrangement of colors was handed down as suitable for the representation of certain scenes, and was unvaried.

It may enable the reader to form a clearer idea of what these highly ornamented volumes were like if I extract the full description of one which was lately in the catalogue of an eminent London bookseller:--It was a Book of Hours, written in France at the beginning of the sixteenth century, or, say during the reign of our Henry the Seventh, 1485 to 1509. It consisted of seventy-seven leaves of vellum, which measured about seven inches by five, with an illuminated border to every page. There were twenty miniatures, some the size of the full page and some smaller. The borders were composed of flowers and fruit, interspersed with grotesque animals, birds, and human figures, most eccentrically conceived. Both the capital letters and the borders were heightened with gold, sometimes flat, and sometimes brilliantly burnished.[1] This is, of course, an unusually rich example. About the same period great pains were taken to ornament the calendar with which these books usually commenced. Some of these Calendars consist simply of a picture in a gold frame, the composition so arranged that it does not suffer by a large blank s.p.a.ce being left in the middle. In this s.p.a.ce the calendar was written; and the rest of the page was occupied with an agricultural scene, emblematic of the season. In the sky above, painted in gold sh.e.l.l on the blue, was the sign of the zodiac appropriate to each month. In some the border was in compartments. One compartment contained the name of the month in gold letters or a monogram. Another contained an agricultural scene, another the zodiacal sign, another a flower, and the rest the figures of the princ.i.p.al saints of the month.

[1] The miniatures were as follows:--1. The Annunciation, a beautiful miniature with the border painted upon a gold ground; this is the case with all the borders containing miniatures. 2.

The Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth. 3. The Infant Jesus lying in the manger at the Inn at Bethlehem, Joseph and the Virgin Mary kneeling in adoration. 4. The Announcement of the Birth of the Saviour to the Shepherds by night. 5. The Wors.h.i.+p of the Magi.

6. The Presentation in the Temple. 7. The Journey into Egypt. 8.

The Coronation of the Virgin. 9. The Crucifixion. 10. The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. 11. Saint Anthony; a small miniature. 12. The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian; a small miniature. 13. King David at his devotions in a chamber within his Palace. 14. The Raising of Lazarus. 15. The Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus, guarded by angels; a small miniature. 16. The body of Jesus taken down from the Cross. 17.

Saint Quentin the Martyr. 18. Saint Adrian. 19. Mater Dolorosa.

20. The Virgin and Child. The four last were small.

The student turns with relief from this comparative monotony to Chronicles in which historical scenes are given. One of the oldest is among the Harleian Ma.n.u.scripts in the British Museum, and relates to the deposition of Richard II. It has been engraved in _Archaeologia_, vol. xx., so that it is accessible wherever there is a good library. A little later French romances were similarly decorated, and we have innumerable pictures to ill.u.s.trate the manners and costumes of the knights and ladies of whom we read in the stirring pages of Froissart.

Illumination did not decline at once with the invention of printing.

On the contrary some exquisite borders and initials are found in books printed on vellum, one very well known example being a New Testament in the Lambeth Library, which was long mistaken for a ma.n.u.script, though it is, in reality, a portion of the Great Bible supposed to have been printed at Mentz before 1455, and to be the earliest work of the press of Fust and Schoyffer. A few wealthy people had Prayer-books illuminated for their own use down to a comparatively recent period.

The celebrated Jarry wrote exquisite little volumes for Louis XIV.

and his courtiers. A very fine Book of Hours was in the Bragge Collection, and must have been written in the sixteenth century, perhaps for some widow of rank in France. It contained sixteen miniatures which closely resembled Limoges enamels, the only decided color used being the carnation for the faces, the rest of the design being in black, white, gold, and a peculiar pearly grey. Each page had a border of black and gold. From another ma.n.u.script, a Book of Hours written in France in the fourteenth century (and exhibited at the Burlington Club by Mr. Robert Young), we have some outline tracings of the ivy pattern (see page 12). The famous illuminations of Giulio Clovio (a native of Croatia, who practised in Italy 1498-1578) hardly deserve the admiration they receive. They are in fact small pictures, the colors very crude and bright, and without the solemnity which attaches to ancient religious art. An illuminated work by Clovio was recently sold in London for the enormous sum of 2050. It had been long in the possession of an old Lancas.h.i.+re family, and is believed to have been illuminated for Cardinal Alexander Farnese, and by him presented to his uncle Paul III., who was pope between 1534 and 1550.

In England the latest illuminators became the first miniature painters; and the succession of English artists is carried on from G.o.demann and Paris, through Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619) and Isaac Oliver (1556-1617), to the school of Cooper (1609-1672) and Dobson, whose portraits are on vellum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL, BY GIULIO CLOVIO.

From "St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans," in the Soane Museum.]

Short as is this survey of the history of Illumination, it will not do to omit all reference to Heraldry. Heraldic ma.n.u.scripts, it is curious to remark, are rarely illuminated with borders or initials; but in the Chronicles of Matthew Paris s.h.i.+elds of arms are frequently introduced with good effect. Occasionally in Books of Hours the arms of the person for whom the work was undertaken are placed in the border. Some fine examples of this kind are to be found in the so-called Bedford Missal, which is really a Book of Hours, and was written for John, duke of Bedford, the brother of Henry V. Most of the ma.n.u.scripts now extant on the subject are of late date and rude execution, consisting chiefly of rolls of arms, catalogues with s.h.i.+elds in "trick"--that is, sketched with the colors indicated by a letter, or lists of banners, of which last a fine example is in the library of the College of Arms.

Heraldry may be studied to advantage by the modern illuminator, who should endeavour to become so conversant with the various charges that in making a border or filling a letter he may be able to introduce them artistically without violating the strict laws of the "science."

A late but very beautiful MS., in four little square volumes, which belongs to Mr. Malcolm of Poltalloch, has been identified as having been written for Bona of Savoy, d.u.c.h.ess of Milan, who died in 1494.

This identification has been made by means of the frequent occurrence of her badge and mottoes in the borders, many of which contain other devices of a semi-heraldic character, such as a phoenix, which is known to have been a favourite emblem of the d.u.c.h.ess, an ermine, a rabbit, and a child playing with a serpent or dragon, all of them allusive to the heraldry of the lady and her husband. The study of heraldry has a further advantage in offering certain fixed rules about the use of colors which may help the student to attain harmony, and also in accustoming the eye and the hand to adapting certain forms to the place they have to fill, as for instance, the rampant lion within his s.h.i.+eld, so as to leave as little vacant s.p.a.ce as possible.

Some examples of animals treated in heraldic style will be found interspersed in this work as tailpieces. One of these, at the end of the Contents, represents a wild boar, to whose neck a mantle, bearing a coat of arms, is attached. It will be understood that what are called in heraldry "supporters" were a knight's attendants, who disguised themselves as beasts, and held their master's s.h.i.+eld at the door of his tent at a tournament. The figures cannot, therefore, be too much conventionalized. (See the examples shown in Plate VII.) Some of the other designs are from the Rows Roll, a heraldic ma.n.u.script of the time of the Wars of the Roses. Some beautiful heraldic designs are to be found in Drummond's _n.o.ble Families_. They were drawn by Mr.

Montagu, the author of a charming volume on _Heraldry_.

Our facsimile reproductions of ancient ma.n.u.scripts have been selected with a view to supply such examples as are most likely to prove useful to the student. For this purpose we have preferred in several instances to present the whole page with its writing complete, so that the modern illuminator may see how the ancient one worked, and how he arranged his painting and his writing with respect to each other.

To this we may add, that for the rest we have chosen our examples as much as possible because they were pretty, instructive, and of English workmans.h.i.+p, a majority of our pictures being copied from ma.n.u.scripts written in our own country. I need only call attention to the well known but very beautiful style usually called the "English flower pattern," which admits of an endless series of variations and even improvements, and which is as characteristic of our mediaeval painters as the Perpendicular style in Gothic is of our architects, both having flourished here and here only during a long period.

And in conclusion I should be inclined to advise the illuminator against stiffness. We are too fond of a vellum which is like sheets of ivory, and of working on it with mathematical precision. The old illuminators used a material much more like what is now called "lawyer's parchment," but perfectly well adapted for taking color and gold. A moment's inspection of our examples will show the freedom and ease of the old work, and the dislike evinced by almost every ancient book painter to having his work confined within definite lines. Such freedom and ease are only attained by careful study combined with experience. Every one has not the ability to originate, but without great originality it may still be found possible to avoid servility.

"Who would be free himself must strike the blow;" but those who aspire to climb must first be certain that they can walk. The thing that most often offends the eye in modern illumination is that the artist, to conceal his own want of style, mixes up a number of others.

Incongruity is sometimes picturesque, but this kind of incongruity is always disagreeable, from the staring and inharmonious evidence of ignorance which it betrays.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HERALDIC BEAR FROM THE ROWS ROLL.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIXTEENTH-CENTURY WRITING--FROM "ALBERT DURER'S PRAYER-BOOK."]

PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS.

Unless when intended for mere practice, all illuminated work should be executed upon _Vellum_; its extreme beauty of surface cannot be imitated by any known process of manufacture, while its durability is well known. _Bristol Board_ approaches nearest to it in appearance, is equally pleasing to work upon, and for all practical purposes of the amateur is quite as good. But, if even that is not attainable, excellent work may be done on any _smooth grained drawing paper_.

BRUSHES.--_Red Sable Brushes_ are preferable to all others for illuminating purposes, and are to be had in goose, duck, and crow quills,--the larger for laying on washes of color, or large grounds in body color,--the duck and crow for filling in the smaller portions of color, for shading and general work. One of the smallest size should be kept specially for outlining and fine hair-line finis.h.i.+ngs. For this purpose all the outer hairs should be neatly cut away with the scissors, leaving only about one-third of the hair remaining.

DRAWING-PEN--CIRCLE OR BOW-PEN.--For doing long straight lines or circles these instruments are indispensable; they give out ink or color evenly, making a smooth, true line of any thickness required for lining any portion of the work, as in border margins, or any part requiring even lines, unattainable by the hand alone. It is necessary to put the ink or color into the pen with the brush after mixing it to the proper consistency for use. Ink or _body color_ may be used with equal facility. Before starting, the pen should always be tried upon a piece of loose paper, to test the thickness of the line, and also to see if the ink in the pen is not too thick or too thin: if too thick, it will not work evenly, while, if too thin, it will flow too rapidly, and _run_ upon a color ground as if on blotting paper.

STRAIGHT-EDGE, PARALLEL-RULER, &C.--A thin wooden straight-edge, or, what is better, a parallel-ruler, and also a set square (a right-angled triangular piece of thin wood), will be found necessary for planning out the work.

BURNISHER AND TRACER.--_Agate Burnishers_ are to be had at the artists' colormen's, either pencil or claw shaped; the former will be most useful to a beginner. An ivory _style_, _or point_, is requisite for tracing, and useful for indenting gold diapers.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

PENS.--For text or printing, either the quill or the steel pen may be used; both require special manipulation to fit them for the work. It will be most convenient, however, for the amateur to use the quill, as being more easily cut into the shape required; though a steel pen, once made, will last for years if taken care of. The point must be cut off slightly at an angle, such as may be found most convenient. If a steel pen is used, it will be necessary, after cutting off the point, to rub the pen carefully on an oilstone to smooth the roughened edges, and prevent it from scratching the paper. The text pen, when properly made, should work smoothly, making every stroke of equal thickness. It is well to have text pens of different widths, to suit for lettering of various thicknesses of body stroke. The pen should be held more upright than for ordinary writing. A broad, almost unyielding point, will give a fine upward and a firm downward or backward stroke with equal facility. For finer writing the pen should be cut with a longer slope in the nib. Fine-pointed pens, for finis.h.i.+ng and putting in the hair lines into the text, should also be provided. For this the fine _mapping_, or _lithographic_, pen, made by Gillott and others, is most suitable.

TEXT OR PRINTING LETTERS.--This is a kind of penmans.h.i.+p which the amateur will, at first, find very difficult to write with regularity, as it requires much special practice to attain anything like proficiency in its execution. But as much of the beauty and excellence of the illuminating depends upon the regularity and precision of the text, it is well worth all the application necessary to master it. The styles of text usually introduced within the illuminated borders are known under the names of "Black Letter," "Church Text," "Old English,"

and "German Text."

INDIAN INK and LAMP BLACK are the only paints generally used for black text; the difference being that Indian Ink is finer, and therefore better adapted for writing of a fine or delicate character. It works freely, and retains a slight gloss, while Lamp Black gives a full solid tint, and dries with a dull or mat surface;--a little gum-water added will help the appearance in this respect. Some illuminators recommend a mixture of Indian Ink and Lamp Black, with a little gum-water, as the best for text of a full black body, working better than either alone. The mixture should be well rubbed together in a small saucer with the finger before using. If a portion of the text is to be in red, it should be in pure vermilion. If in gold, it must be sh.e.l.l gold, highly burnished with the agate, as hereafter described.

COLORS.--Not to confuse the learner with a multiplicity of pigments, we will only mention such as are essential, and with which all the examples in the following studies may be copied. As experience is gained by practice, the range of colors may be increased as requirements may dictate.

GAMBOGE. CRIMSON LAKE. BURNT UMBER. PRUSSIAN BLUE.

INDIAN YELLOW. SEPIA. LAMP BLACK. BURNT SIENNA.

VERMILION. EMERALD GREEN. CHINESE WHITE. COBALT.

YELLOW OCHRE.

A little experimental practice with the colors will do more to show the various combinations of which they are capable than any lengthy exposition. Various portions of color may be tried, particularly for the more delicate tints, for greys, neutrals, and quiet compounds, where great purity is required, and the most pleasing noted for future use.

There are two methods or styles of coloring, which are used either alone, or in conjunction. In the Celtic, and other early styles, including that of the fourteenth century, where the colors are used flat--no relief by shading being given--it is purely a surface decoration, the colors well contrasted, merely graduated from deep to pale, and outlined with a clear, black outline. The ma.s.ses of color or gold are here usually enriched by diapers, while the stems, leaves, &c., are elaborated by being worked over with delicate hair-line finis.h.i.+ngs on the darker ground. The other method of treating ornamental forms embraces a wide range of style of illuminating, approaching more nearly to Nature in treatment, the ornament being more or less _shaded_ naturally, or conventionalized to some extent.

It is important to lay the color evenly in painting, not getting it in ridges, or piling it in lumps, as the amateur is apt to do. This will be best attained by painting as evenly as possible with the brush, mostly in one direction, and not too full of color, and refraining from going back over the parts just painted, if it can be avoided.