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

by J. H. Middleton

St Dunstan as an artist.Saint Dunstan, the great ecclesiastical statesman of the ninth century, created another school of illumination in the Benedictine Abbey of Glastonbury. Dunstan himself was no mean artist, as may be seen from a fine drawing of Christ, which he executed[^[89]]; the Saint has represented himself as a small monkish figure prostrate at the feet of Christ. At the top of the page is inscribed in a twelfth century hand, "Pictura et scriptura hujus pagine subtus visa est de propria manu sancti Dunstani."

Coloured ink drawings.

Coloured ink drawings.During the tenth century a large number of illuminated manuscripts were executed in the southern parts of England, the miniatures in which are very unlike and, as decoration, very inferior to the manuscripts of the Anglo-Carolingian style, as represented by the magnificent Benedictional of Aethelwold. This class of illumination consists of drawings, often with a large number of small figures, executed with a pen in red, blue and brown outline. The drawing of these figures is very mannered, the heads are small, the attitudes awkward, and the draperies are represented in numerous small, fluttering folds, drawn with an apparently shaky line, as if the artist had lacked firmness of hand. This, however, is a mere mannerism, as wherever he wished for a steady line, as, for example, in the drawing of the faces, the artist has drawn with the utmost decision and firmness of touch. The costumes of these curious outline drawings, the architectural accessories and other details, all show clearly the influence of the very debased forms of classical Roman art, which still survived among the manuscript illuminations of Italy[^[90]]. This degraded form of classical art was far from being a good model for the Anglo-Saxon illuminator to imitate, and the blue and red outline miniatures are very inferior to the sumptuous Anglo-Carolingian manuscripts which were being produced at Winchester by contemporary illuminators.

MSS. of the XIIth century. Roll of St Guthlac. Beauty of line.

MSS. of the XIIth century.In the eleventh century Anglo-Saxon miniatures in coloured outline improved greatly in beauty of form and in gracefulness of pose; till at the beginning of the twelfth century extremely fine miniatures of this class were produced. A very beautiful example of this is a long vellum roll illuminated with eighteen circular miniatures, mostly drawn with a pen in dark brown ink. Roll of St Guthlac.These outline miniatures represent scenes from the life of Saint Guthlac, the Hermit of Crowland. The series begins with a drawing of the youthful Guthlac receiving the tonsure from Hedda, Bishop of Winchester (676 to 705), in the presence of the Abbess Ebba and two nuns. The whole composition is very skilfully arranged to fill the circular medallion, and there is great dignity and even delicate beauty in the separate figures. The precision of touch shown in the drawing is most admirable, Beauty of line.recalling the perfect purity of line seen in the finest vase-paintings of the Greeks, in which, as in these miniatures, the greatest amount of effect is produced with the fewest possible touches. A few flat washes are introduced into the backgrounds, but all the principal part of the miniatures is executed with this pure outline.

There are no grounds for the suggestion that these medallion drawings were intended as designs for stained glass. There is much similarity of style in stained glass paintings and manuscript illuminations during the twelfth to the fourteenth century in England, just as in the early Byzantine manuscripts the same design serves for a miniature painting and a colossal wall-mosaic. The same simplicity of drawing and flatness of composition were preserved in both classes of art, and there is nothing exceptional in the fact that these miniatures of Saint Guthlac might have served as excellent motives for a glass-painter[^[91]].

Pontifical of St Dunstan.

Pontifical of St Dunstan.The Pontifical of Saint Dunstan (Brit. Mus. Cott. Claud. A. 3), executed in the early part of the eleventh century, is a magnificent example of decorative art, both in its noble designs and richness of colour. Though no gold is used, the greatest splendour of effect is produced, especially in a large miniature representing Saint Gregory enthroned under an elaborate architectural canopy, with prostrate figures at his feet of Archbishop Dunstan and the Benedictine scribe of this beautiful manuscript; see Westwood, Irish Manuscripts, Pl. 50.

Byzantine decadence.

Byzantine decadence.The beauty of the best English manuscripts of the twelfth century is a remarkable contrast to the once splendid Byzantine school of illumination, which by this time had sadly degenerated from its former vigorous splendour, and had become weak in drawing, clumsy in pose and inharmonious in colour. The English school on the other hand, all through the twelfth century, was making rapid advances towards a perfection both of design and technique which culminated in the Anglo-Norman style of the latter part of the thirteenth century, which for beauty of all kinds remained for a long time quite without rival in any European country.