Fig. [28] shows part of a border from a manuscript of this class, a Book of Hours executed for the Duke de Berri; the typical pointed "ivy-leaves" grow from each of the quatrefoils which are introduced to hold the arms and initials of the owner. It comes from the same manuscript as the illumination shown in fig. [25].
| Decorative unity. |
Decorative unity.These elaborate borders are usually made to grow out of the ornaments of the illuminated initials in the text, and thus a sense of unity is given to the whole page, the decorations of which thus become, not an adjunct, but an essential part of the text.
Fig. [24] shows a miniature from a French manuscript of this magnificent class, the Treasure-Book of the Abbey of Origny in Picardy, executed about 1312 for the Abbess Héloise. It contains fifty-four large miniatures of scenes from the life and martyrdom of Saint Benedicta. The shaded part of the border is of the richest burnished gold, and the whole effect is magnificently decorative.
The scene represented is the murder of the Saint, whose soul is being borne up to Heaven by two Angels, held in the usual conventional loop of drapery.
| Horae of the Duc d'Anjou. |
Horae of the Duc d'Anjou.As an example of this class of illumination we may mention the famous Book of Hours of the Duke of Anjou (Paris, Bibl. Nat.) illuminated about the year 1380. Every page has a rich and delicate border covered with the ivy foliage[[128]], and enlivened by exquisitely painted birds, such as the goldfinch, the thrush, the linnet, the jay, the quail, the sparrow-hawk and many others; and at the top of the page, at the beginning of each division of the Horae, is a miniature picture of most perfect grace and beauty, the decorative value of which is enhanced by a background, either of gold diaper, or else of delicate scroll-work in light blue painted over a ground of deep ultramarine.
Enormous prices were frequently paid by wealthy patrons for sumptuously illuminated manuscripts, especially in the fifteenth century for Books of Hours.
Fig. 24. Scene of the martyrdom of Saint Benedicta from a Martyrology of about 1312.