Illuminated manuscripts in classical and mediaeval times, their art and their technique

by J. H. Middleton

Fig. 36. Paintings on the vault of the church of St Michael at Hildesheim, closely resembling in style an illuminated page in a manuscript.

The German manuscripts of the thirteenth and fourteenth century are less purely national in style. The finest illuminations of this date show in some cases a marked French influence, and, especially during the fourteenth century, a strong Italian influence was prevalent.

MS. of the XIVth century.

MS. of the XIVth century.Fig. [37] gives a good example of this from a manuscript Passionale, written in 1312 for the Abbess of the Convent of St George at Prague. The figures in this manuscript resemble those in some of the Florentine illuminated manuscripts of Dante's Divina Commedia, executed about 1360 to 1390. The subject of the miniatures shown in fig. [37] is a romantic story of a bride who was carried off by brigands and flung into a blazing furnace, from which, by the aid of the B. V. Mary, she was rescued unhurt by the knight, her husband.

School of the Van Eycks.

School of the Van Eycks.In the fifteenth century an important development of Teutonic art took place under the Van Eycks and their pupils. In Flanders, especially in Bruges, Antwerp and Ghent, a very elaborate and beautiful class of illumination was produced, in some respects different in style from the Franco-Flemish school of art.

School of Memlinc.

School of Memlinc.In the latter part of the century magnificent manuscripts were produced by illuminators of the Memlinc and Van der Weyden school, such as the famous Grimani Breviary in the Venetian Ducal library, so-called from its having been bought from a Sicilian dealer in 1521 for 500 gold ducats by Cardinal Grimani, a member of the Venetian Grimani family, who were liberal patrons of this class of art; this sum was quite equal to £2000 in modern value. The miniatures in this manuscript were ascribed by the dealer to Hans Memlinc, Gérard of Bruges and Lieven of Antwerp; they were probably by the two latter illuminators, not by Memlinc, who died in 1494 or 1495.

Fig. 37. Miniatures of Italian style from a German manuscript of 1312, showing the influence of Florentine art on the illuminations of southern France.