February - an Illuminated Manuscript page

 Before we had wall calendars those who could afford them had  brevaries 

A popular page layout was a list of major observances and saints for a month with a picture at the bottom 

You can see a monk perhaps the scribe or illuminator warming himself by a fire !

I suspect the blank lines were to allow the purchasers to add more saints in or other notes at a later time  as there are more saints and observances in February than those listed?

Or perhaps the patron asked to only have his favorites shown?

More Rufillus - Breaking the Fourth Wall !

 MORE RUFILLUS 

#Rufillus #illuminatedmanuscript #portraits

Rufillus snuck a self portrait into another part of a text. 

Enclosed within a letter D we see him either writing on a long piece of paper or possibly scraping and preparing a length of parchment.

I rather like the cheeky touch of Rufillus' shoes resting on the edge of the letter and the way he seems to be almost leaning forward to show us his writing tools.

BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL !

More Easter art as Layout Design Example!

MORE EASTER ART AND A QUESTION

Folks doing a lot of overtime at PT job n no ideas for quickie posts so I hope you don't mind more EASTER ART. It is at least typography and layout related. Lovely example of  double columns with ornament and frame ! Even if you hate Easter scenes it is a gorgeous and beautiful layout too!

Also colors look how they get pale and mid blues to work with browns by also using red!

What can we learn from this to apply to modern web page design?

Will the weird medley of tags  in the labels dialog box backfire?

This is by the Limbourg Bros !

Next time hopefully more bevels

I'm trying to think of  combos I havnt tested yet to share with you !

The Winchester Bible

THE WINCHESTER BIBLE

Most people associate Romansque and Gothic art in England with castles and cathedrals rather than paintings since most mediaeval wall paintings were painted by by Protestant or destroyed in the Civil WAr of the 17th century or by other fires and events.

However there was an English tradition and several styles of painting that survive in some illuminated manuscripts.

One of the most famous of these is the Winchester Bible from the 12th century which can be viewed at the Cathedral library of that city.

Many general histories cite only Franco-Flemish examples usually the Book of Hours by the Limbourg brothers but people were producing books all over Europe.

Illuminated mansucripts are labor intensive tho. Analysis shows six different artists working on the Winchester bible and many of the illustrations are only ink drawings clearly meant to be colored later.  Artists scribes and  book binders they all had to be paid and while ink is cheap the best ground mineral pigments were expensive. Hence the decline in Illuminated manuscripts when printing was introduced.

Even in China and Japan where there was a cultural preference for hand copying as having status demand for print triumphed.

However perhaps some day soon we may have online bibles that are full textual linkages and illustrated and as vividly beautiful as works like the Winchester bible?

Book of Hours Two

Book of Hours Two

Gothic Script in context

I have wondered lately why most of the best illuminated manuscripts were produced in workshops in France and Flanders and i suspect the answer is WAR.

The Wars and Revolts in England and the Hundred years War between England and France was probably a factor.

England had thriving workshops in the 12th and 13th centuries and the major workshops in France and Flanders were not in areas effected directly by the wars.

Plus a book of hours was a small portable item easy to pack and move unlike a church fresco or mosaic or a stained glass window.

This  particular Book of Hours was produced in Bruges which is now part of Belgium. The illumined sections are restrained and elegant.

Contrast this image with my previous post on the Bedford Hours.

This Book of Hours is called the Arnhem Book of hours.

Holland was still part of Flanders.

Note the use of white space in both books and the balance of the framing ornaments to the text sections and illustrations. Enjoy!

In the Next post I'll look at some French works.

Books of Hours One

Books of Hours

Gothic Script in Context

An illuminated Book of Hours was THE status item in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Many aristocrats and rulers delighted in commissioning and collecting them.

One of the most famous of them of that of the  Duke of Bedford.

I've chosen these 2 pictures cos I hope they illustrate the following

1) The relationship of picture in text in illuminated manuscripts

2) the size of the originals

3) the use like modern web pages of framing to emphasize section

4) gothic script in its original context

Enjoy this and the next few posts in this series.