DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14715#0092
THE ART OF ILLUMINATION.
53
of the same dull colour in combination with carmine, and green is altogether
absent.
The Spanish character is strongly marked on many of the heads, and a
few singular specimens of costume appear in some of the groups. The
architectural backgrounds also are very curious and interesting from the
variety and precision of their details.
This manuscript belongs to about the middle of the fourteenth century,
and may be placed a little later than Queen Mary's Psalter, with which it
assimilates in the character of its drawing; but is in striking contrast in the
style of its colouring. In the one the beauty of the design is almost obscured
by the heaviness and coarseness of the pigments employed; while in the
other the exquisitely delicate outlines are enriched by equally delicate tints
of the brightest colours, in which a lively green and a brilliant orange give
variety to the blues, greens, and more quiet tones.
The British Museum contains also a fine specimen of Spanish art of the
latter part of the fifteenth century, in a copy of the " Hours of the Virgin."*
It is embellished with numerous miniatures, elaborate borders, and initial
letters. They are French in style, but the colouring throughout is marked
by the heavy gloomy effects generally found in Spanish paintings, whether
on a large or a small scale.
The most gorgeous specimen of Italian and Spanish art combined with
which we are acquainted, is in a volume in the British Museum, from which
we have taken the letter P on the next leaf, and the same letter and the text
forming the following plate. The title is enclosed within a border, the whole
of which is most elaborately finished. It is formed of branches of continuous
scroll-work of a very peculiar character, in brown colour, carefully shaded
and heightened with fine lines of a delicate yellow. These scrolls enclose
flowers and foliage of the richest tints, and are covered at their junctions
with coloured leaves, while the centre of each curve has a band of jewels.
In the upper margin are seen two boys playing the game of quintain, and on
the inner margin is a grandee, and on the outer his lady, both in dresses of
the richest character. At intervals appear amorini playing musical instru-
ments, and between the scrolls are rabbits in various attitudes, while parrots
and other birds appear on the branches. The lower margin of the border
contains the arms, supporters, mottoes, and devices of Arragon, Navarre,
and Sicily. It has also the monogram of the unknown artist.
* Additional MS. 18,193.
53
of the same dull colour in combination with carmine, and green is altogether
absent.
The Spanish character is strongly marked on many of the heads, and a
few singular specimens of costume appear in some of the groups. The
architectural backgrounds also are very curious and interesting from the
variety and precision of their details.
This manuscript belongs to about the middle of the fourteenth century,
and may be placed a little later than Queen Mary's Psalter, with which it
assimilates in the character of its drawing; but is in striking contrast in the
style of its colouring. In the one the beauty of the design is almost obscured
by the heaviness and coarseness of the pigments employed; while in the
other the exquisitely delicate outlines are enriched by equally delicate tints
of the brightest colours, in which a lively green and a brilliant orange give
variety to the blues, greens, and more quiet tones.
The British Museum contains also a fine specimen of Spanish art of the
latter part of the fifteenth century, in a copy of the " Hours of the Virgin."*
It is embellished with numerous miniatures, elaborate borders, and initial
letters. They are French in style, but the colouring throughout is marked
by the heavy gloomy effects generally found in Spanish paintings, whether
on a large or a small scale.
The most gorgeous specimen of Italian and Spanish art combined with
which we are acquainted, is in a volume in the British Museum, from which
we have taken the letter P on the next leaf, and the same letter and the text
forming the following plate. The title is enclosed within a border, the whole
of which is most elaborately finished. It is formed of branches of continuous
scroll-work of a very peculiar character, in brown colour, carefully shaded
and heightened with fine lines of a delicate yellow. These scrolls enclose
flowers and foliage of the richest tints, and are covered at their junctions
with coloured leaves, while the centre of each curve has a band of jewels.
In the upper margin are seen two boys playing the game of quintain, and on
the inner margin is a grandee, and on the outer his lady, both in dresses of
the richest character. At intervals appear amorini playing musical instru-
ments, and between the scrolls are rabbits in various attitudes, while parrots
and other birds appear on the branches. The lower margin of the border
contains the arms, supporters, mottoes, and devices of Arragon, Navarre,
and Sicily. It has also the monogram of the unknown artist.
* Additional MS. 18,193.