| Outline drawings. |
Outline drawings.One very beautiful class of English illumination, executed about the middle of the fourteenth century, has very small and delicate figures, drawn in firm outline with a pen and brown ink; relief is then given to the figures by the partial application of transparent washes of delicate colour, producing an effect of great beauty and refinement. The Poyntz Book of Hours in the Fitzwilliam Library has no less than 292 miniature paintings of this very beautiful style. The book was written for a friend and companion of the Black Prince about the year 1350. Its delicate paintings have unfortunately, in many places, been coarsely touched up with gold and colours by a later hand.
| Lectionary of Sifer Was. |
Lectionary of Sifer Was.A very fine characteristic example of English art towards the close of the fourteenth century is preserved in the British Museum (Harl. Manuscripts 7026). This is a noble folio manuscript Lectionary[[117]], unfortunately imperfect, which was written and illuminated by a monk named Sifer Was for Lord Lovel of Tichmersh, who died in 1408; it was presented by him to the Cathedral church of Salisbury, as is recorded by a note which asks for prayers for the donor's soul. The text is written in a magnificent large Gothic hand, such as was imitated by the printers of early Missals[[118]] and Psalters. On the first page is a large, beautifully painted miniature representing the scribe Sifer Was presenting the manuscript to Lord Lovel. The figures are large in scale, and the heads are carefully executed portraits, evidently painted with great eiconic skill. Each page of the text has a richly decorative border with conventional foliage of the characteristically bold English type. Figures of angels are introduced at the sides, and an exquisitely minute little painting is placed at the top, by the initial letter of the page.
| English foliage. |
English foliage.The English foliated borders and capitals in manuscripts of this type are very bold and decorative in effect, with a simple form of leaf with few serrations, twining in most graceful curves and broadly painted in blue and red with very good effect, even in many manuscripts where the execution is not of the most refined kind. A variety of what is commonly known as "the pine-apple design"[[119]] is frequently introduced into these very effective pieces of ornament.
| Portrait figures. |
Portrait figures.It should be noticed that the first growth of portrait painting in Western Europe seems to have arisen out of this custom of introducing portrait figures of patrons and donors at the beginning of important manuscripts. In French and Burgundian manuscripts especially we find many very interesting portraits of Kings and Princes together with those of the authors or the illuminators of richly decorated manuscripts.
| Altar-pieces. |
Altar-pieces.Donors' portraits are also commonly introduced into votive altar-pieces, usually in the form of small kneeling figures. As time went on these figures of donors gradually became more important in scale and position. Thus, for example, the magnificent altar-piece in the Brera Gallery in Milan, painted by Piero della Francesca about the year 1480[[120]], has, in the most conspicuous place in the foreground, a kneeling figure of the donor, Duke Federigo da Montefeltro of Urbino, which is actually larger in scale than the chief figures of the picture—the Madonna and attendant angels. During the fourteenth century, both in altar-pictures and in manuscript illuminations, the portraits of living people are treated in a more subordinate way.