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

by J. H. Middleton

Classical style.The bold and very decorative, yet almost realistic treatment of the foliage of the trees and of the flowers which are sprinkled among the grass is purely classical in style, and the whole miniature shows that the tenth century illuminator had before him some very fine manuscript of early Imperial date. From this he has selected a picture which might by omissions and modifications be adapted to his subject; and for the figure of the Prophet he has fallen back on another less ancient original, but still one which must have been several centuries older than his own time.

This is the explanation of what at first seems so strange a union in the same painting of very graceful single figures by the side of others which are rigid and awkward; and again, great skill shown in the drawing of the individual figures combined with a feeble and clumsy arrangement of the whole composition.

Byzantine style.

Byzantine style.Fig. [5] shows a miniature of very similar style representing the Prophet Ezechiel in the Valley of dry bones. It is taken from a manuscript of the Sermons of Saint Gregory Nazianzen, which was written for the Byzantine Emperor Basil who reigned from 867 to 886. This figure chiefly illustrates the Byzantine, not the Classical element in the miniatures of this mixed style of art, though there is also a clear trace of Graeco-Roman influence in the finely designed drapery of the Prophet.

The curious union of two utterly different styles is well exemplified in another of the miniatures in the last mentioned Psalter. Here David is represented like a Byzantine Emperor crowned and wearing the richly embroidered toga picta, and holding an open book. The figure might well pass for a representation of the Emperor Justinian, and the original painting was probably of that date, of the early part of the sixth century.

Graeco-Roman figures.

Graeco-Roman figures.On each side of the Byzantine David is a female figure draped with most gracefully designed folds of pure Graeco-Roman style, a most striking contrast to the central figure. Who these ladies represented in the original manuscript it is impossible to say, but the painter who in the tenth century illuminated the Psalter called them Wisdom and Prophecy, writing by them the names Sophia and Prophetia.

Fig. 5. The Prophet Ezechiel from a Byzantine manuscript of the ninth century A.D.

Value of late copies.