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.