| Del Piombo as an illuminator. |
Del Piombo as an illuminator.It is interesting to note that the famous painter Sebastiano del Piombo[[203]] ("Fra Bastiano piombator") received payment "pro libris miniatis" in the year 1546 from Pope Paul III.
In 1549 Federigo Mario di Perugia received 4½ ducats a month for his labour "in scribendis et ornandis seu pingendis libris." This is the same miniaturist who illuminated some choir-books for the Roman Monastery of Saint' Agostino[[204]].
It was especially for the great choir-books that the art of the scribe and illuminator survived, the reason being that no printers' fount of type had characters of sufficient size to be read by a whole circle of singers. Thus we find Italian and Spanish manuscript Antiphonals[[205]] and the like, which have the grand Gothic writing of the fifteenth century executed as late as the year 1620 or even later[[206]].
| Spanish MSS. |
Spanish MSS.The Manuscripts of Spain, Portugal and the East. Little need be said about the manuscript illuminations of the Spanish peninsula since they contain little that is native or original.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many magnificent illuminations were produced in Spain and Portugal, but they are mainly imitations either of Italian or of Flemish miniatures. In earlier times in Northern Spain the influence of France was paramount, and in Southern Spain the beautiful "Saracenic" art of the Moorish conquerors influenced all branches of the fine arts, including that of manuscript illumination.
| Moslem influence. |
Moslem influence.To some extent the same Moslem influence is apparent in the decorative borders of Sicilian and Venetian manuscripts, especially during the fifteenth century.
The illuminations of Oriental manuscripts do not fall within the limits of this brief treatise, but it should be noted that during the mediaeval period, and down to the present century, Persian and Arabic manuscripts with decorative illuminations of extraordinary beauty and skilful execution have been largely produced in Syria, Persia and India under the Moslem conquerors.