Illuminated Manuscripts

 "Illuminated."  It means lit up, flooded with light.  So what's an illuminated manuscript, other than one sitting on your desk with a bright desk lamp?

Actually it means something somewhat different.  A medieval illuminated manuscript is one with drawings and paintings in it.  Because, you remember, the printing press was only invented at the end of the Middle Ages, medieval books were all unique productions.  They were copied by hand, mostly on parchment before the fourteenth century, and they were special and valuable.  Drawings and other images made them even more special.

 For something like a Bible, it was considered appropriate to be especially prolific with images.  One of the most common forms of illumination was to make the initial letter of a section into a little picture.  This is a capital D (for Deus, God) from a ninth-century book of Psalms, done at the monastery of Corbie (eastern France).

 Full page illustrations were also found, though less commonly.  Sometimes (like here) they would be in a few subdued colors, but other times they would be done in vivid colors.  Usually the copying of the text and the drawing of the illuminations would be done separately, by different people.  There are plenty of medieval manuscripts where the person who was supposed to be drawing the fancy initials started but then never got back to the project, because there are big blanks where an illuminated initial is supposed to be.

Those doing the illuminations seem sometimes to have gotten bored with their careful, devout images and started drawing little scenes in the margins, demons, cats, people with faces in unusual parts of their anatomy, horses, or whatever took their fancy.  Usually these do not show up in Bibles, but they were common in illuminated books of history and the like.

When the Middle Ages became popular and romantic in the nineteenth century, wealthy people started collecting illuminated initials.  They would even have scrapbooks, where they would carefully cut an especially nice initial out of a medieval manuscript and paste it into their scrapbook, then toss the now-mutilated piece of parchment.  This makes medievalists' stomachs hurt just to think about it.

© C. Dale Brittain 2023

For more on medieval manuscripts and other aspects of medieval history, see my ebook Positively Medieval, available on Amazon and other ebook platforms.  Also available in paperback.

Medieval artists

The stereotype of an artist today is someone starving in a garrett, probably wearing a beret, maybe smoking a cigarette and drinking absinthe.  This stereotype probably derives ultimately from the opera La Bohème (a great opera, but not a particularly informative work of social history).  Were medieval artists like this?

No!  (You knew I'd say that, didn't you.)

Medieval artists were not free-spirited individuals creating art in solitude and following their own muse (and starving), but rather professional artisans, employed (and paid) to produce art.  The distinction between art and architecture which we make really didn't make sense.  The majority of medieval art was religious, and a lot of it was produced for churches.

The people who employed artists were often religious leaders (bishops, abbots) but might be wealthy lay people, especially in the late Middle Ages.  Art included illustrations in Bibles and religious books (called illuminations), statues big and small, crucifixes and other liturgical objects, carvings on the fronts of churches or on the capitals at the top of pillars, and wall paintings.

The above image is a capital at the top of a pillar, showing the story of David and Goliath.

There were standard ways of depicting certain people and events; Saint Peter, for example, was always shown with enormous keys.  But the artists had a great deal of latitude in how they worked with the standard expectations.  Artists were given a lot of room for creativity, so that even though a particular image might look at first glance a lot like others, the individual artist would make it his (or hers).

It used to be believed that medieval artists worked anonymously, but in fact the best ones had excellent reputations, and artists often signed their works.  A lot of these signatures have been worn off over the centuries, but if you look carefully at the tympanum over the front door of Autun cathedral, you will see the words "Gislebertus hoc fecit" right under Christ's feet, meaning, "I Giselbert made this."  Giselbert was rightly proud of his work.

(The above image may be too small for you to see the words, but they're there.  See detail.)

Art was valued both for its beauty and for the value of the materials as well as the quality of craftsmanship.  Illuminations in Bibles, for example, often included gold leaf.

During the Renaissance (which is really another term for the late Middle Ages in Italy, as I have discussed elsewhere), artists started to produce portraits of lay people, which had not really been found earlier, other than a few kings.  Again, the artists were commissioned (and paid).  They often worked  in ateliers, with masters and apprentices.  The great majority of Renaissance art, however, was religious.

© C. Dale Brittain 2017