Illuminated Manuscripts
The earliest surviving illuminated manuscripts date from the
fifth century, but books and scrolls were already decorated in the classical
world. Papyrus rolls were probably illustrated in ancient Egypt and Greece, and
Varro and Martial, for example, describe author portraits in Roman manuscripts.
The great rise of manuscript illumination, however, was triggered by the
invention of the "book", that is, the change from papyrus rolls to
codices that consisted of bound parchment leaves. This change took place
gradually between the second and fourth centuries A.D. Book illumination
remained one of the most flourishing forms of art until the sixteenth century
when the luxuriously decorated, hand-written codices were gradually replaced by
the printed book.
In the early Middle Ages, most painters in miniatures were
monks - occasionally nuns, members of the secular clergy, or even laymen - who
worked in the scriptoria of monasteries by the side of the scribes or scriptores,
who were usually monks themselves. They executed large numbers of illuminated
manuscripts needed for liturgical services, theological studies, or private
devotion, as well as a innumerable other works that formed part of the learning
of the period, including secular books handed down by antiquity. Although
manuscripts continued to be written and decorated in monasteries and friaries in
the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance as well (especially active were the
Carthusians and the Brethren of the Common Life in fifteenth-century
Netherlands), in this period many illuminators were already specialized lay
craftsmen who worked in their workshops with the help of assistants and
apprentices. In fact, as early as the eleventh and twelfth centuries
professional laymen working for pay appeared, and often lay artists were called
into monasteries for a short period of time necessary for the execution of the
work. Most of the professional artists of the late Middle Ages worked only in
book illumination, but some others were involved both in miniature and large
scale painting such as frescos and altarpieces. Illuminators usually belonged
either to the guild of painters or to guilds involved in the book trade (text
writers, binders, book sellers, etc.); this arrangement varied from town to
town. Until the late Middle Ages most illuminators remained anonymous. Although
scribes began signing their names as early as 586, when the famous Rabula
Gospels was signed by its scriptor, no signatures of illuminators survive before
the eighth or ninth centuries, from which period we possess two certain
signatures of illuminators. Even though the lack of artists' signatures can
partly be explained by the fact that in some cases the scribe and the
illuminator could have been one and the same person (as in the case of the
Lindisfarne Gospels written by Bishop Eadfrith in 716), illuminators' signatures
remain infrequent until the late medieval period. With the gradual rise of the
status of the artist from simple artisan to acknowledged artist, illuminators
also showed more self-awareness. Besides the increasing number of signatures,
self-representation was also becoming frequent from the twelfth century on.
From the thirteenth century, the growing number of surviving
documents, mainly of legal nature (contracts, tax rolls), provide additional
information on lay artists. Illuminators have been especially well-documented in
towns where book production was a major occupation. University towns such as
Bologna, Paris, Oxford, Cambridge played a very important role in this respect,
being the main centers for the production and trade of books. In the early phase
of medieval book painting, the training of illuminators took place in the
monasteries by personal instruction, although also some technical manuals were
available from the ninth century on. Later, as the number of lay artists
increased, the training was usually done by apprenticeship in the workshops,
according to the rules set down by the guild to which the illuminators belonged.
Illuminators often shared the execution of works. The various stages of a single
miniature were executed by different members of the same workshop: the master
was responsible for the most difficult and determining parts of the job such as
the layout of the composition, while apprentices were entrusted with the more
mechanical, time-consuming jobs that also required less expertise, such as the
preparation of the ground or the reinforcement of the preliminary drawing in
ink. Sometimes the separate sheets of a yet unbound codex were given out to
different painters to decorate. In these cases, special attention was paid to
the overall harmonization of the work. The overall unity of a book decoration
was also of prime importance when an unfinished project was completed later, by
different artists: the original program (often indicated by completed
underdrawing) was usually treated with respect and followed as closely as
possible. A famous fifteenth-century example is Jean Colombe's completion of the
work of the Limbourg brothers on the Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry.
Colombe kept and followed the original compositions, most probably because he
was ordered to do so by the owner of the famous Book of Hours. The decoration of
codices greatly varied in amount and complexity. The simplest of designs was the
border decoration or marginalia, although these were sometimes quite intricate
and included carefully worked out figures of animals, monsters, and human
characters . The initial letters of texts were very frequently decorated, often
with a scene, in which case they are called historiated initials.
The most ambitious decorations filled either a quarter, a
half or a full page. Because of their square format, these miniatures often
imitated large-scale painting. In many cases the direct influence of monumental
paintings or even woodcuts have been demonstrated in miniatures. Illuminators
also often copied other miniatures or borrowed designs from pattern books.
Pattern books usually included various studies
from life and copies made from all sorts of works. They were often handed down
from one artist or workshop to another. In the late Middle Ages some highly
finished pattern books may also have been used as advertisement, to show the
artist's capabilities to potential customers. Illuminated manuscripts were
always widely circulated and copied. Especially sumptuously decorated codices
were given as diplomatic or wedding gifts. Traveling scholars and monks carried
books with them and brought them to their home libraries. In the late Middle
Ages some single-leaf miniatures were created specifically for the art market,
and often for export. These decorated sheets were then inserted into already
bound codices for decoration. As such practice hazarded the market positions of
local workshops, the guilds sometimes forced illuminators to mark their own work
with a stamp and forbade the import of single-leaf miniatures from elsewhere.
Such a decree was issued in Bruges in 1426.
The Egmond Gospels are a Dutch creation from the
early Middle Ages. The Egmond Gospels are beyond doubt among the greatest
achievements of Dutch cultural history of the early Middle Ages. Besides its
importance as a historical document it also contains the oldest depictions of
Dutch people and buildings, and represents one of the oldest surviving church
treasures.
It contains the text of the four gospels, and was written in
the third quarter of the ninth century in Reims in Northern France, as may be
deduced from certain characteristics of its script. After some time it must have
found its way to more western regions, where a rich decoration of canon tables,
portraits of the evangelists, and ornamental pages in the ‘Franco-Saxon’
style were added. Around 975 it belonged to Dirk II, Count of Holland from about
939 to 988, who had it bound in a rich binding adorned with gold and precious
stones. He subsequently presented the manuscript to the Abbey of Egmond,
probably on the occasion of the dedication of the Abbey church, which he had
rebuilt in stone. On that occasion he had two miniatures added, which record the
donation. The first one portrays Dirk and his wife Hildegard laying the book on
the altar in the church, which is depicted in the typical medieval combination
of cross section and exterior view that was customary in the Middle Ages. On the
right-hand miniature, which has not been reproduced here, both spouses pray to
St. Adalbert, the patron saint of Egmond, for intercession with Christ. Each
representation is elucidated by a Latin verse, of which the left one reads in
translation: ‘This book was donated by Dirk and his beloved wife Hildegard to
the merciful father Adalbert, that he may righteously remember them in all
eternity’.
The Gospelbook remained in Egmond till the sixteenth-century
iconoclastic disturbances, when it was brought to safety in Haarlem and later on
in Cologne; the richly decorated binding was, however, lost during those days.
The manuscript was rediscovered in Utrecht at the beginning of the nineteenth
century and placed in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek after being purchased by the
Dutch government for its historical importance.
The City of God
In the first two decades of the fifteenth century
Paris experienced a period of unprecedented flourishing of the art of miniature
painting. An important impetus to this development were the numerous noble
patrons as, for instance, the King of France and the Duke of Berry. Dozens of
eminent miniaturists worked on commissions ranging from the illumination of
Books of Hours to the illustration of the works by authors from antiquity and
more recent times. A particularly magnificent manuscript of that period is the
copy of the French translation of De Civitate Dei by the Church Father St.
Augustine. As is usual in such works, the text begins with an elaborately
decorated opening page, followed by ten smaller miniatures at the beginning of
the individual books. The miniature reproduced depicts God the Father, enthroned
amidst the four doctors of the Church: top left St. Augustine, top right St.
Gregory the Great, recognizable by his papal tiara, bottom left St. Ambrose, and
bottom right St. Jerome, dressed as a cardinal with his attribute, the lion, at
his feet. The most important authors of Christianity have been depicted writing,
with their writing sheets kept flat by red ribbons weighted with lead pellets.
The written sheets which St. Gregory has hung to dry on a line - the sole
instance of such custom being depicted - are famous among manuscript experts.
Framing the page is a magnificent, densely decorated border of green and pink
leaves which, linked at the bottom by a true-to-nature rendering of hills with
trees, gives the overall impression of a forest full of birds and playful
hunting scenes.
About 1485 the book became the property of Philip
of Cleves, councillor and warrior of Maximilian, Duke of Burgundy, the French
King Louis XII and the Emperor Charles V successively. In the lower margin he
had his coat of arms painted, with his emblem of two corn dressers, and a banner
with his motto ‘A JAMAIS’ between the two columns of text above. After his
death in 1528 part of his manuscript collection was bought by Henry III of
Nassau, thus devolving within the collection of the stadholders until this
became part of the collection of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
One of the most exuberant Northern Netherlandish manuscripts
from the second half of the fifteenth century is this Book of Hours, illuminated
by the Master of the Boston City of God. This master, who was active in Utrecht
in the sixties and seventies, derived his name from the decoration of a copy of
St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei, now in the Boston Public Library. He
illuminated about twenty manuscripts, of which the Hague manuscript is beyond
doubt his most striking achievement. It contains seven full-page miniatures and
28 historiated initials on text pages, all accompanied by opulent decorated
borders. The miniatures illustrating the story of the Passion of Christ are
especially remarkable because of their monumental, linear character. To achieve
this the painter used the compositions of a series of prints by the Master E.S.,
an engraver working in the Rhineland between 1450 and 1467. Such copying from
woodcuts and engravings was common practice among Northern Netherlandish
illuminators in the second half of the fifteenth century.
The Boston Master strengthened the outlines of his figures by
offsetting them against large areas of pounced gold. On the Descent from the
Cross reproduced here he used a wide horizontal band in the background, and
surrounded the whole miniature by a gold band. Another remarkable feature of his
style is the horror vacui, the filling up of the whole available space, which
creates a dense and overcrowded impression. This is particularly noticeable in
the borders, which are by far the most extraordinary feature of the manuscript.
The nervously curling, brightly coloured acanthus leaves have been studded with
strange elements like mussels, butterflies, half-opened walnuts and insects,
lending a somewhat bizarre character to the illustration.
The manuscript is one of more than a hundred manuscripts
purchased at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth
century during the librarianship of W.G.C. Byvanck.