The surface, in the case of large forms, is generally made as smooth and perfect as possible, so that, as Cennino Cennini says, the burnished gold “will appear almost dark from its own brightness”; and its [p185] brightness is only seen when the light falls on it at a particular angle. The gilding of a manuscript, however, is slightly flexible, and a large gilded surface is likely to be bent, so that some part of it is sure to catch the light.
Small surfaces highly burnished very often do not show the effect of, or “tell” as, gold, unless they catch the light by accident. It is well, therefore, where the forms are small to have several on the page, so that one or another will always shine out and explain the rest. And while the proper craftsman tries always to get the best finish which he reasonably can, the natural, slight unevennesses or varying planes of small gilded forms may be of advantage to the whole effect. The pleasant effect of such natural variations may be seen in thirteenth-century Initials, where numbers of little gold pieces are fitted into the backgrounds, and their changing surfaces cause the whole to be lit up with little sparkles of light. A parallel to this may be found in the hand-tooling of a book-cover, which sparkles with gold, because the binder could not press in each piece of gold-leaf absolutely level. On the other hand, the “deadness” of a machine-stamped cover is largely due to the dead level of its gilding.
Black and Gold.—One of the finest effects in calligraphy can be obtained by the simple contrast of gold capitals with black writing (see p. [299]).
While, as in the case of black and red, the strongest effects are obtained by a marked contrast, gold may yet be very effectively used for small capitals throughout the black text. It does not lose or blend its brilliance with the black of the writing as colour is apt to do, but lights up and illuminates the page. For this reason gold will [p186] “help out” and make agreeable a black and colour effect which, by itself, would have been a failure (see p. [134]).
BURNISHED GOLD FORMS & OUTLINES
Plain gold letters, symbols, and other detached forms, not having backgrounds, are usually not outlined. An outline cheapens their effect, making them darker and heavier, and, if the line be at all thick, concealing the true form of the letter, and giving it a clumsy appearance.
It is an instructive experiment to make a gold (or plain white) letter with a thick outline (a, fig. [114]), and then paint a background round it. The effect is quite altered, and greatly improved (b, fig. [114]). The outline no longer tells as the outer line of the form, but partakes more of the nature of the background, in which it cuts out, as one might say, a little niche for the letter to rest in.
Gold-leaf forms on coloured backgrounds are [p187] outlined—generally in black—in order that letter and background may together form a flat design, stable and at rest in the page.