Lessons in the Art of Illuminating: A Series of Examples selected from Works in the British Museum, Lambeth Palace Library, and the South Kensington Museum. With Practical Instructions, and a Sketch of the History of the ArtLoftie, W. J. (William John)
History
Lessons in the Art of Illuminating: A Series of Examples selected from Works in the British Museum, Lambeth Palace Library, and the South Kensington Museum. With Practical Instructions, and a Sketch of the History of the Art
Loftie, W. J. (William John)
Illumination of books and manuscripts
It is difficult to explain the method of using gold-leaf without an
actual demonstration: and the student will learn more in ten minutes
by watching a competent gilder than by reading a library of books on
the subject. The "raising" is to be obtained from any artist's
colorman, and nothing but practice long and assiduous can secure the
power to use it. The same rule must be laid down for burnishing, which
is an art not to be acquired in a day. It might be well to commence
with the dotted work, common in the fourteenth century, and when we
have learned to make a burnished dot with our agate point we may go on
and burnish a larger surface. The effect of burnished leaf gold cannot
be given in chromo-lithography, but it may be worth while to remark
that all the gilding in the original illumination from which this
Plate is copied is burnished on a raised surface, even the small
letters in the text.
The colors employed by the copier were of a more mixed and complicated
character than those for the other page from the Lambeth Library. The
reason is apparent in a moment on comparing the two. In this page the
brilliancy is so tempered as to produce a comparatively subdued
effect. In the General Sketch mention has already been made of
miniatures in which the artist restricted himself to the use of
certain colors, so as to insure a peculiar and delicate effect. Here
there has been no such restriction, but each color has been softened
and so worked over with patterns and lines in body white or in pale
yellow, that there is no glare or contrast. The student should be
careful how he obtains harmony by this method, as he may find all his
work weakened and paled; but, skilfully used, the system may be made
to produce the most charming results.
The blue is Prussian, over which are dots and lines of Chinese White.
The pink is obtained by mixing Lake and Chinese White, shaded with
darker Lake, and also heightened with white lines and dots. The orange
is pale Indian Yellow shaded with Burnt Sienna, and with an admixture
of Lake in the deeper shadows. The green in this example is obtained
by mixing Prussian Blue and Indian Yellow in different proportions.
On the back of Plate IV. are two more outlines from Mr. Robert Young's
little French Book of Hours. They are admirable models of a kind of
work which for fully half a century was to France what the "flower
pattern" was to England. The branches are generally dark blue
delicately lined with white. The leaves are sometimes gold, that is
where there is not already a gold ground, and sometimes yellow, red,
and blue. The prevailing tint is blue, and in some pages no other
color, besides the gilding, is employed.
Some outline borders and ornaments of the same period and style are to
be found on the back of Plates V. and VI. The coloring of some of them
will be indicated by a reference to Plates III. and I.
[Illustration: BULL, BADGE OF NEVILLE.]
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