Mistress
Rowan Perigrynne
As with costuming and
other arts, many people produce scrolls which are
pretty, but generically "medjeeval", rather than of
a particular style from a given time and place. I
have to admit that my aim is to produce work which
is so accurate, that it can be placed to (say)
northern Italy in 1450. Not that it slavishly
copies any specific piece, but rather it copies and
reproduces the style to produce a new and original
piece of work, perfectly in keeping with the
originals.
This is easier to do
with calligraphy than illumination. There are a lot
less parameters, for a start. There are even many
books around which explain various calligraphic
hands and how to reproduce them. You can find
specific instructions on how to letter Book of
Kells uncials, or early Gothic or bastarde. The
same cannot be said about illumination.
In order to provide a
copy book calligraphic hand, a scribe has carefully
analysed the style from original manuscripts,
bearing in mind that different scribes have
different handwriting, as we do today. Marc
Drogin's book on calligraphy is an excellent
example of this technique. In the field of
illumination, there is some detail in Johnson's
work, and George Bain has done much to document
aspects of the Celtic style, but there is not the
thorough analysis which you can find for
calligraphy.
What are the features,
both general and specific, which make a particular
illumination style recognisable? Let me give you an
example. When I was trying to teach myself how to
do 15th C Italian vinework style, I looked at over
20 examples by different artists. They varied in
many respects, such as whether the border was on
the left only, or right around, or how many vines
were intertwined. Some had putti (fat Italian
babies) and some didn't. Some painted wreaths pink
and blue and some green.
But some aspects were
constant. They all had white vines (some were
lightly shaded with cream). They all only ever used
red, green and blue, and in about equal
proportions. They all had thin blue borders around
the vines. They all had primary initials based on
roman capitals done in gold leaf. They all had
white highlights in groups of three
dots.
The conclusion from
this was that if I wanted to reproduce this Italian
style, I should only use red, green and blue, gold
roman caps, white vines, and so on. Analysing these
features is the first step towards being able to
reproduce them. Some people can do this
unconsciously. I hope to show you a general method
which can be used by anyone.
The ideal way to do
this is to sit down with a number of examples of
the style you want to emulate. They could be
several examples from one book or by different
artists of the same period.. So here is a summary
of the sorts of questions you might ask yourself
about a particular style.
Step 1
In order to analyse
the basic design on the page (and be able to come
up with a similar design yourself), you need to
start with the big picture...
General
layout
Is the layout horizontal (landscape) or vertical
(portrait)? Or two matched pages?
Are there any
borders?
Are the any large graphic elements (capital
letters, pictures, seals, devices, etc)?
Margins
What are the relative proportions of the top,
side and bottom margin? Don't forget that some
manuscripts had the margins trimmed when rebound or
for colour reproduction!
How much margin
compared to text (relative text area and margin
area)?
Now you can sketch in the basic frame and idea for
your own layout.
Step 2
If you are the scribe,
you will then need to analyse the hand and style
being used in this period. Even if you are doing
the illumination, some of this will still
apply...
Blocks of
Text
How many columns are there? Is there a line or
border between them? Are the lines justified? (does
the text line up neatly on both the right and
left)
Does it use
justifiers? (small filler illuminations to make the
lines even) What are they like?
Do words finish at the ends of lines, or wrap
around? Are there hyphens?
The Text
Itself
What is the size of the text on page - how many
lines per page?
How big is the writing - how tall is an 'o'?
How much space is there between the lines of text?
Measure this between letters without ascenders and
descenders.
What is the proportion
of line space to letter height? The same? Twice as
big?
What is the proportion
of ascenders (the top bit of letters like l,k,f,b)
compared with an 'o'? Less? More? What about 't'
(often a special case and lower than the
others)?
What is the proportion
of descenders (the bottom bit of letters like
p,q,g) compared with an 'o'? Less? More? What about
'z' and 'f'?
How much space is
there between words, compared with an 'o'? Less?
More?
What is the proportion
of pen width to letter height? Is an 'o' 4
pen-widths high? 3? 6?
How much space is
there inside letters (between the strokes of an
'm', inside an 'o') compared with the width of the
pen? Less? More?
Marc Drogin
demonstrates this text analysis very well in his
book on Medievel Calligraphy, and shows several
examples of the same basic hand. Now you can plan
your calligraphy - how many lines and how they are
spaced.
Step 3
Now for a detailed
analysis of the actual illumination style.
Ready?...
Borders
Is there an illuminated border?
How many sides are bordered? What variation is
there in this?
What is the width of the border compared to the
margin and text? How does the border interact with
the primary capital? Whith the secondaries? With
the text? (Are there any twisty bits which join
them together...)
Is any foliage used? What type? - anacanthus?
vinework? Gothic?
What are the standard features and patterns in the
borders?
Illustration
Is there an illustration (like a picture)?
Is it before or after the capital? At the bottom of
the page? At the top of a column? Scattered around
the page? What proportion of the page does it
cover? Is it separate (in a frame or border) or
just figures on the page itself? What are the
standard features and pattern in the
illustrations?
Primary
Capital
Is there a much larger initial capital?
What proportion of the page or column does it take
up? How many lines of text?
Does it extend into or become part of the
border?
What is the basic letter form - Uncial? Roman
capital?
Is the letter itself flat colour or decorated? In
what way?
Is the space inside the letter decorated? -
historiated (with a little picture inside)?
Foliated (with leaves)? Diapered (patterned
background)?, Knotwork? Vinework?
Is the inside decoration attached to the letter or
separate? What are the proportions?
What are the standard features and pattern in the
Capitals?
Secondary or
Paragraph Capitals
Does each paragraph start with a fancy capital?
What proportion of the page or column does it take
up? How many lines of text? Do they extend into or
become part of the border? What is the basic letter
form - Uncial? Roman capital?
Are the letters flat colour or decorated? In what
way?
Is the space inside the letters decorated? -
historiated (with a little picture inside)?
Foliated (with leaves)? Diapered (patterned
background)? Knotwork? Vinework? Plain colour?
Is the inside decoration attached to the letters or
separate? What are the proportions?
What are the standard features and pattern in the
capitals?
Text
Capitals
Does each sentence start with a fancy capital? The
capital form of the text? A bigger version of the
lower case letter?
Special
Text
Is there any text treated in a special way? -
someone's name, a date... How is it treated? -
Rubricated (written in red), Gilded, Centred on its
own line, etc
Metals
Is there any metallic gold or silver? Note that
silver leaf turns a dark grey blue - after 500
years, it won't look like silver any more! How is
it used? Capital only? In the border? In the
diaper? In the initial? Minor capitals?
Use of
Colour
What are the main colours?
What are the proportions of these colours (eg about
half blue, equal red and gold, less green...)
What minor colours are used? Is there any pink,
orange, purple? How and when is it used?
Are the colours used flat and shaded?
If shaded, are they blended or layered?
Are the primary colours lightened with white? Is
the green lightened with white or yellow?
Is white used as a highlighter? Are any other
colours? How and when are they used?
Outlines
If there is gold, is it outlined in black? How
thick? Are there extra patterns in the outline?
Are letters and borders outlined in black? How
thick?
Are figures outlined? How about their faces? What
about diaper patterns? Are any other colours or
outline patterns used?
Figures
Are there people inside the letters? In an
illustration? In the border?
Is the style realistic or stylised?
If stylised, what are the features? How are the
faces treated? The hair?
The
clothes?
How is the shading done on all these features?
What about beasts, birds and insects? Are they real
or make believe? What style?
And objects? Are they real? Are they '3-D' or flat?
Do they have shadows?
Scenery
If there are any 'scenes' or illustrations, how are
they treated? Do they tell a story?
Are there real backgrounds (with sky)? or a
diapered background? No background painting?
Are these usually trees? Buildings? Grass?
Are the trees real or stylised? Is there an obvious
'tree' formula? How about the shading patterns,
leaf sizes, fruit, trunks, groups...
Are the buildings real or stylised? Is there an
obvious building formula? Are they pink?
How are rocks done? Water? The sun and stars?
Is the grass/hills/air/water darker at the back of
the picture or the front? Is there contrast
shading? How is it done?
And finally, you are
ready to begin designing the details of your
illumination and actually painting it. I find I
cannot usually pick all these details up in one go.
I try to keep the reference works beside me as a I
draw and paint, so that I can check and compare
exactly how specific bits were done.
It's breathtaking when it works. Have
fun!
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