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EVOKING THE PAST

Rosmar Booth - Art and History - Blog

      THE ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS 05 May 2019

THE MEDIEVAL ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE MINIATURE PORTRAITS

The Art of Miniature painting has its roots with the illustrations of the Medieval illuminated Manuscripts of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The illuminated manuscripts were those which included borders, capital letters, ornaments and illustrations, and the decoration included not only pure luminous colours but also gold and sometimes silver, given the illustration a special brightness, and the feeling that the page was illuminated. (some examples from the fifteen century still endure).

Until the seventeen century these illustrations in England were call LIMNING, the word Limn originate from the ancient Latin word LUMINARE, which means to illuminate, and  therefore a LIMNER was a manuscript illuminator.

Furthermore, in England the artists that later used to paint the exquisite small portraits were also called LIMNERS, in fact they used a very similar technique as the one used for the illustrated manuscripts, since in the seventeen century these small portrait paintings were known as Miniatures, and the artists that executed them, were known as Miniaturists.

MINIUM is a Latin name of Iberian origin, also known in Spain as Minio or Azarcón,(oxide of red lead) and Cinnabar,(red sulphide of mercury). Its definition is red lead or vermilion: is a pigment component of the red ink that was used to paint the capital and illustrations of this ancient books. 

Later on, more opaque colours were introduced to paint the ornate capital letters such as blue and green etc. The large initials with images inside the letter, were known as "historiated initials"

The word Miniature derives from Minium, a lead oxide component of red ink used in the ancient manuscripts, (as previously mentioned). The verb is MINIARE that means to paint with minium. MINIATUS means painted in minium and its diminutive MINIATULUS means painted softly in minium.

About the seventeen century there was a change in the interpretation of the word MINIATURE denoting from then on, very small paintings and objects, it is not certain if this was caused by confusion with some other similar Latin word such as MINIMUN (which means the smallest) or perhaps another derivative of this word. Therefore the word miniature in the glossary of Art, denoted from then on a very small work, carefully and exquisitely executed with great detail, but it does not denote the technique or the medium.

 The word MINIUM potentially originated from a river called in old times  MINIUS located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. This area was known  during the times of the Roman domination as" The Gallaecia" province of Hispania. This river, which runs across  the autonomic community of Galicia and is known in our day as the "Miño"  in Spain, and "Minho"  in Portugal,  is the largest river en Galicia, and  is 340 kilometres long , 76 of which, towards the end of its course, form the border between Spain and Portugal. 

Minium  was the Latin name to denote cinnabar, red lead or vermilion( some variations are Minio, Minia, "Minius"Mineo), therefore this Spanish river called MINIUS in the past,  which had a reputation of having red hues in its waters, was essentially the RED RIVER.

In some old mines in a valley near this river,  where the Romans  used to extract gold and silver, were found, in between the volcanic rocks and warm springs this red pigment which they used for the decoration of the roman temples, painting huge murals, panels and large bibles. 

 Likewise this was the pigment used in the middle age for the composition of these small awe-inspiring manuscripts. CINNABAR or vermilion was already known in the third century B.C. 

Spain had large and important deposits of Cinnabar/Minium, the one in  Almaden, Ciudad Real, being one of the most important in the world. It was closed in 2002 due to the prohibition of mercury mining in Europe. In the year 2006, this mine was opened to the public and one can visit the first level, 50 metres underground.

The illustration of manuscripts started in ancient Egypt towards the year 2000 BC, they used papyrus  as a base,  due to its flexibility some of the manuscript were rolled as scroll, in the fourth century parchment replaced the papyrus .

In the beginning these ancient manuscripts were bibles and religious book,  executed mostly by monks in the monasteries, and were sources of wisdom, tradition and enlightenment. To make the text more comprehensive they used illustrations. All the work of a manuscript was done by the same person , who usually dedicated all his life to this activity.

The monks used to copy the manuscripts hoping to keep alive the wisdom of the ancient world, and also to diffuse the Gospel. They used prepared goose feathers quill, (or from other large birds) for  writing. 

The production of these books was a very laborious process, a work of great discipline and precision. The monks would have painful eyes, as they would work under poor light, for sure near a window, although the windows  were usually small, and the walls very thick to try to keep the cold monasteries a little bit warmer. They may have used oil lamps at night,  probably also suffered  from pain in the back and other parts of the body  due to the position in which they worked daily, and during many hours. 

The earth colours used up to the tenth century such as sepia, red, and ochre, started changing, specially from the twelve to the fifteens century, with the use of more varied colours , stronger, cleaner and more harmonious, giving more contrast to the composition and a better and more precise representation to the figure and face of the subjects.

There was in the monasteries in the fourteens century a communal room call ESCRIPTORIUM used exclusively by the SCRIBES, they were  the people  dedicated to write the text of these MANUSCRIPTS , a word  that also derives from the Latin, "MANU- SCRIPTUS" a combination of two words meaning written by hand, there was also the COPYIST , their task was to copy the books. 

In another room  would  probably work the LIMNERS or illuminators, they used to draw and paint the illustrations, the MINIATORS experts in applying the minium or colour red to the very elaborated capital letters, and the RUBRICATOR who used to insert the rubric and margin.

Likewise there were the bookbinders,  and also the ARMARIAN ,who was the monk librarian that supervised the process of copying  and amongst other things he  repaired and catalogued the manuscripts, also he kept the account of the lent and returned  books.

The NOTARII for the legal documents and of course the helpers and apprentices of this unique and specialist art, most probably apart from religion,  the art of the illuminated manuscripts could also be learned in the  monastic schools , universities were also created concretely the University of Paris was created in the thirteen century.     

 Many workshops  flourished from the thirteen century onwards and by the fourteen  century there was already professional groups  that used to do this works together in ateliers, the work was then shared.

The artists used to prepare the colour themselves but after the twelve   century they could find in shops either the pigments already prepared,  or the basic components, ground Cinnabar was more expensive than red lead. Their brushes were made of squirrel or beaver hair. 

Towards the end of the fourteen century women used to work on these manuscripts, especially in Paris. Stood out Christine de Pizan, 1368-1430, Italian born French author, defender of woman's rights, political thinker in medieval France, amongst other royal patronages she was court writer during the kingdom of Charles VI.

The themes of these books were then more varied , and in the fifteen century these manuscripts were not only for the church , although it owned  an extended library, but they were also accessible to rich and noble people  who had the resources  to buy them.

The commissions were very specific with lots of detail, and some portraits of important people were incorporated into these manuscripts, although at the time , they were produced with little precision, more like representations, as the people did not sit for the artist.

Some of these artisans had the privilege to be affiliated to the Royal Court .

At the time, well off people  had a small personal collections of manuscripts, perhaps twenty o thirty  books more or less.

Philip II the Bold Duke of Burgundy  had a very extensive personal library of about six hundred  manuscripts, this was probably the largest collection of his time. 

These marvellous books were executed with parchment  or in vellum, prepared from goat or sheep skin, or from calf skin. 

In 1440 with the invention of printing these manuscripts were in competition, the transition started then from the hand  written books  to the printed books, although well- to- do- people and collectors preferred and went on commissioning these exquisite manuscripts for quite a while. Also this artists  went on working with documents, coat of arms  etc. 

There exist some printed books that are ornate and decorated by hand. The text was first printed, keeping some blank space on the side of the page,  for the artists to then include some hand decoration. The Initial letters and  heading,  were also painted in red.

Towards 1460 the printing books become more popular because of being less pricy, and also they were faster to produce, on the contrary it took many months to produce each one of these marvellous small manuscripts, they were really priceless! 

 Unfortunately many of these artisans needed to find another way of earning their living and the illuminator became an artist painting portraits or pictures independent of the manuscripts.

 Perhaps some of these pages accidentally become detached from the books and being independent from  the manuscripts they were easier to transport  and therefore the idea to create the portable miniature portraits was born. 

Most probably many people started commissioning their portraits autonomously without it being part of a manuscript .

An awe-inspiring Miniature Portrait of Elizabeth I of England, by Levina Teerlinc,