Medieval Illuminators and Their Methods of WorkWho were the medieval illuminators? How were their hand-produced books illustrated and decorated? In this beautiful book Jonathan Alexander presents a survey of manuscript illumination throughout Europe from the fourth to the sixteenth century. He discusses the social and historical context of the illuminators' lives, considers their methods of work, and presents a series of case studies to show the range and nature of the visual sources and the ways in which they were adapted, copied, or created anew. Alexander explains that in the early period, Christian monasteries and churches were the main centers for the copying of manuscripts, and so the majority of illuminators were monks working in and for their own monasteries. From the eleventh century, lay scribes and illuminators became increasingly numerous, and by the thirteenth century, professional illuminators dominated the field. During this later period, illuminators were able to travel in search of work and to acquire new ideas, they joined guilds with scribes or with artists in the cities, and their ranks included nuns and secular women. Work was regularly collaborative, and the craft was learned through an apprenticeship system. Alexander carefully analyzes surviving manuscripts and medieval treatises in order to explain the complex and time-consuming technical processes of illumination - its materials, methods, tools, choice of illustration, and execution. From rare surviving contracts, he deduces the preoccupation of patrons with materials and schedules. Illustrating his discussion with examples chosen from religious and secular manuscripts made all over Europe, Alexander recreates the astonishing variety and creativity ofmedieval illumination. His book will be a standard reference for years to come. |
Contents
Technical Aspects of | 35 |
Programmes | 52 |
Notes | 150 |
Contracts for Illumination | 179 |
Bibliography | 187 |
204 | |
211 | |
Other editions - View all
Medieval Illuminators and Their Methods of Work Jonathan James Graham Alexander No preview available - 1992 |
Common terms and phrases
Abbey Abbot Apocalypse Art Bulletin Avril Bestiary Bible moralisée Biblioteca Bibliothèque nationale Bodl Bodleian Library Book Illumination Book of Hours book trade Boucicaut Master Branner British Library Cambridge catalogue Chimenti Christ Cistercian Codex College colophon colour context copy cycle debba decoration documents earlier Early Gothic Manuscripts English example facsimile fifteenth century figure Florence folio fourteenth century France French Painting Gospels Handschriften Harley Illuminated Manuscripts illustrations Italian J.J.G. Alexander Jean Landévennec latin livre London M.R. James manu Manuscript Illumination Manuscript Painting Manuscrits à peintures marginal drawing Meiss miniatures Missal Model Books monastic monk Morgan motif Munich Museum notes Oxford Pächt painters parchment Paris patron pattern book pictorial portrait Psalter Renaissance Riches Heures Romanesque Romanesque Art Royal scenes script Scriptorium self-portrait siècle Stirnemann surviving thirteenth century twelfth century University Library Utrecht Psalter Vatican Vienna Walters Art Gallery Winchester Bible written York
Popular passages
Page 193 - Catalogue of the ivory carvings of the Christian era with examples of mohammedan art and carvings in bone in the department of British and mediaeval antiquities and ethnography of the British Museum. London, Longmans & Co. '09. 4°. LII, 194 S., 125 T. 1320 docia, and Syria in the British Museum.
Page 204 - The Master of Mary of Burgundy (London, 1948); A. van Buren, 'The Master of Mary of Burgundy and His Colleagues: The State of Research and Questions of Method', Zeitschrift fur Kunstgeschichte, 38 (1975), 286-309.
Page 198 - Latin Psalter in the University Library of Utrecht. (Formerly Cotton ms. Claudius C. VII.). Photographed and produced in facsimile by the permanent autotype process of Spencer, Sawyer, Bird & Co.