Secondly:—Fix the scale of your writing and ornament with reference to the size of your page, and adhere to it throughout the volume. This rule, which was rigidly observed in all the best periods of the art, is incessantly disregarded in the present day; and to such an extent, that not only does scale frequently differ, as we turn page after page, but the same page will frequently exhibit scroll-work, derived from some great choral folio, interwreathed with leafage borrowed from some pocket Missal or Book of Hours.
Thirdly:—If you adopt any historical style or particular period as a basis on which your text, miniatures, or ornamentation are to be constructed, maintain its leading features consistently, so as to avoid letting your work appear as though it had been begun in the 10th century, and only completed in the 16th; or, as I have once or twice seen, vice versâ. For however erratic changes of style may appear to be in Art, as they run one another down along the course of time, it will be invariably found that there exists a harmony between all contemporary features, which cannot be successfully disregarded; and this it is which has ever rendered eclecticism in art a problem,—not impossible, perhaps, to solve, but one which, as yet at least, has never met with a satisfactory practical solution.
Fourthly:—Sustain your energies evenly throughout your volume; for, remember, your critics will estimate your powers, not by your best page, but by a mean struck between your best and your worst. Book illumination is generally looked upon as microscopic work, demanding the greatest exactitude; and whatever merits any page may display, they will go for little, if that page is disfigured by a crooked line, or a single leaf insufficiently or incorrectly shadowed; and the greater the merit, the more notable the drawback.
Fifthly:—Rigidly avoid contrasting natural with conventional foliage. Adopt which you like, for by either beautiful effects may be produced; but mix them, and the charm of both is gone. Natural foliage may be successfully combined with any other varieties of conventional ornament, excepting those based upon natural foliage.
Sixthly:—Take care that some at least of your dominant lines and borders are kept parallel to the rectangular sides of your pages; for unless your flowing and wayward ornaments are corrected by this soberer contrast, they will, however beautiful in themselves, have a straggling and untidy appearance in the volume. Where the lines of text are strongly marked, as in black ink on a white ground, and the page is so far filled with text as to leave but little space for ornament, this rule may be, to a great extent, disregarded, for the lines of the text will themselves supply the requisite contrast to the flowing forms; but where the page is nearly filled with ornament, or when the text is faint only, as in gold lettering on a white ground, it becomes imperative.
Seventhly:—Be decided, but temperate, in your contrasts of colour. It would obviously exceed the limits of these notes to attempt in them to enter upon the principles of the "harmony of colour;" they must be studied from treatises specially devoted to the subject. Such study must, however, be accompanied by constant experiment and practice; for it would be as foolish to expect a man to be a good performer upon any instrument, because he had learnt the theory of music, as it would be to suppose that he must necessarily paint in harmonious colouring, because he studied the theory of balance in combination. To the experienced eye and hand, functions become intuitive, which, to the mere theorist, however profound, are toil and weariness of spirit.
Such are a few of the rules, by attention to which the illuminators of old achieved some of their happiest effects, and which can never be safely disregarded by those who would emulate their efforts.
In taking up the class of substances on which illumination, as applied to general decoration, may be best executed, we meet, firstly, with one occupying a somewhat intermediate position,—viz., tracing-paper. I term its position intermediate, because, it may be wrought upon in either oil or water colour; and because, when so wrought upon, it may be either mounted on paper or card, and so made to contribute to book or picture enrichment; or attached to walls or other surfaces, brought forward in oil-colours, and be so enlisted in a general system of mural illumination. How this may best be done technically will be hereafter described; here I may notice only the use which may be made of this convenient material, by many not sufficiently advanced in design or drawing to be able to invent or even copy correctly by free hand, and yet desirous of embellishing some particular surface with decorative illumination. For instance, let it be desired to fill a rectangular panel of any given dimension with an illuminated inscription. Take a sheet of tracing-paper the exact size, double it up in both directions, and the creases will give the vertical and horizontal guidelines for keeping the writing square and even: then set out the number of lines and spaces requisite for the inscription, fixing upon certain initial letters or alphabets for reproduction on an enlarged scale, from this work, or any other of a similar kind, and making the height of the lines correspond therewith. Then lay the tracing over either the original or the rough enlargement, and trace with pen, pencil, or brush, each letter in succession, taking care to get each letter into its proper place, in reference to the whole panel, to the letter last traced, and to the other letters remaining to be traced. When this is completed, trace on whatever ornaments may best fill up the open spaces and harmonize with the style of lettering. When the tracing is completed, with a steady hand pick in all the ground-tint, keeping it as even as possible; and heighten the letters or ornaments in any way that may be requisite to make them correspond with the models from which they may have been taken. By adopting this method of working, with care and neatness of hand, very agreeable results may be obtained, without its being indispensable for the illuminator to be a skilful draughtsman. The tracing-paper may be ultimately attached to its proper place, and finished off, as will be hereafter recommended; and, if cleverly managed, it will be impossible to detect that that material has ever been employed.
| Technical Manual. | Plate No II. |
| IXTH Century. | |
