Chapter V: Appendix: Plate I

FIG. 1,

A thin border, very frequently used in illuminating by the _Italians_; consisting of small blue and pink spaces, ornamented with white lacework over the flat ground.

FIG. 2,

Are specimens of various flowers, ornamentations, foliage, the arabesque scroll, etc., which are to be met with in the ancient manuscripts. To give anything like a variety, would fill a volume; to classify them would also be an endless task, since any contrivance to do so would be fruitless: my object being to give an insight to some of the _leading_ features observable in the illuminations: these are sufficient for the beginner. To acquire an accurate idea, I must refer the student to the _British Museum_. I have given here outlines of subjects most frequently met with; these the student can fill up with colours according to his taste, varying them at pleasure; yet, in preference, he should endeavour to sketch them himself, since it is desirable that he should acquire proficiency in these trifles, for as they generally form small details, to relieve the solid parts, and are intended to fill up blanks, they invariably require to be well executed.

FIG. 3,

Are compartments to be filled up by various solid colours over which the scrollwork or ornaments are applied, either in white, gold, or colours; when in red, it is called _damask-work_, the patterns of which can be varied in endless variety. Over the gold, engravings with the agate are highly effective, sometimes forming simple ornamentations, or representing embossed chasing.

FIG. 4,

Represents a portion of a scroll to be filled in by a solid colour, over which, after being properly shaded, fine threads of gold may be drawn, or thinly dotted in white. In making these or similar scrolls, care should be taken that they are gracefully drawn, and made to run _freely_ throughout the design.

FIG. 5,

Illustrates fragments of curves with leaves or ornaments which must be ruled-in with the _ruling-pen_, by the aid of the wooden scroll, the scroll being placed on the pencil-tracing, where a portion of its curve corresponds with the intended design.

FIG. 6,

Are two straight lines ruled parallel and closely together, so as to show a white thread between.

PLATE II,

Is the initial letter O, copied from a woodcut. Though the general design is effective and pleasing, it is not accurately drawn; whereas it might have been, had the designer used the tracing-paper. I have shown the defects in the outline, to illustrate a principle which should be always avoided, viz., disregard for the mechanical appliances, by means of repetition always at hand for the illuminator by using the red transfer paper.

This initial is very useful to copy frequently, since it will give freedom to the hand in producing graceful curves. The remaining figures on this plate are various initials, used at the head of texts; they may be variously illuminated.

PLATE III,

Is an early specimen of _Byzantine_ art, about the eighth century, the principle of the Irish school being here adopted, on which the acanthus foliage of the _Roman_ style is superadded. Some gorgeous specimens of this style are in most of the European libraries; but many valuable specimens of that period must have been lost, since the _Iconoclastic fanatics_ destroyed so many thousands by the flames, from the end of the fifth to the seventh centuries.

PLATE IV,

Is a specimen of a style of illuminating much in use from the thirteenth century to the beginning of the fourteenth. Many and very varied specimens of this style are in almost every collection in European libraries. Sometimes the bands are alternately solid and transparent; in others, the bands assume a lozenge-fashioned, undulated, or circular shape; but another and more frequently adopted mode is to alternate them, tints, of _solid coloured bands_, keeping up strict regard as to complement of colour. The following order may be regarded as a lesson:--_Crimson_, _gold_, _ultramarine_, and _buff_ may succeed each other. The ornamentations show best on them when relieved, by placing "casting shadows" under the flowers, scrolls, etc.

PLATE V,

Is an Italian border of the fourteenth century. The stems of the scrollwork may be, with good effect, painted in gold, and shaded up in burnt sienna, to imitate the bark of trees. Scrolls and foliage may be painted in this specimen in delicate tinted colours, such as greys, light blues, or pinks, softly shaded up, and ornamented with white or gold ornamentations, according to the circumstance of the tint selected. Flowers and leaves, of course, in their natural colours. Various, and always delicate tints for greens in leaves, are essentials in the old Italian border. The "back-ground" here is intended to be gold, though other tints may be substituted, so long as they are not introduced in the ornamentations.

PLATE VI,

Is a border, to be found in almost every contemporaneous school of the period--the French, the Flemish, the Italian, as well as English and Irish. The ornamentations are not so softly executed, nor is the outline as graceful as in the former. The back-ground is always transparent, containing, sometimes, small figured filigree work. A preponderance of one pervading colour is sometimes its characteristic; but too much similarity in tint should be carefully avoided.

PLATE VII,

Is the same style precisely as above, with the peculiarity of the ornamentation springing from the immediate border surrounding the text. The grotesque animal, twining itself in a curious manner, is also typical of the illuminations of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

PLATE VIII.

"THE MODEL OUTLINE."

I have ventured to give a specimen of a modern style of illumination, based upon _no principle_ whatever which could furnish the student with any instructive hints, or enable him to produce original ideas of his own. As a whole, it represents snatches of ornamentations, jumbled together without order or arrangement, and vanishing at both ends into space.

Scrollwork, having neither _beginning_, _middle_, or _termination_, and presenting a series of flourishes, which may be said to give this class of outline a distinctive character, under the generic title of _Sign-boarding_. It is an attempt at imitating missal, bearing about the same relation to its prototype as the modern to the pure Gothic in architecture, or the ancient Rome of Augustus to that of the present day in civilisation.

_De gustibus non disputandum est._

THE END

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