![]() ![]() They date from the Mogul period (1526-1827) probably 17 th century. The collection includes two paintings on paper from Lahore (now Pakistan) which were acquired by Nolan Moore in India in 1990. Illuminated manuscripts continued to be important in India and the Middle East, where the printing of sacred writings was frowned upon. This example includes border decorations with flowers, ivy leaves, gold dots, and a dragon like creature being ridden by a child. Other examples include a gold single leaf from a French Book of Hours on vellum, utilizing highly burnished gold decorations another small leaf with illuminations on both sides: Christ before Pilate and Christ before Caiaphas (1500) a leaf from a calendar for the month of May showing hawking and flower picking (France: 1470) and a remarkable leaf on vellum with a beautifully executed miniature of Christ being presented in the temple, in the style of Parisian illuminator Maitre Francois (c. Both are decorated with floral borders of colored temperas. One shows a wealthy burgher in the foreground with a castle landscape the other presents the image of a nude man praying. The collection also includes a matched pair of leaves from the late fifteenth century in France. They are from Germany, late 17 th century, when manuscripts had been replaced by printing and were produced primarily as fine gifts to the wealthy. Latin devotional quotations are in red, the German text in gold. The elaborate crowded scenes are full of incident and detail, painted in soft colors and liquid gold. Two full page miniatures from a devotional manuscript on vellum illustrate Christ before Caiaphas and Christ carrying the cross. It is illuminated with floral sprays in bright colors and burnished gold. It is a page from a Book of Hours which was produced by a commercial manuscript house for a wealthy patron to keep track of religious days and devotions. The manuscript leaf from the Burgundy Region of France is also on vellum. ![]() Both were acquired from Muir Dawson in Los Angeles. A latter example, also on vellum, is from a Psalter, on which its writer continues to use the fine pen work on the initial letters, but adds gold ink to his red-black-blue palette of colors. The pen work on the initial letter “S” is particularly skillful. The earliest specimen is a leaf from a Bible (the text is from Maccabees in the Apocrypha), produced in Italy around 1250 on vellum in red, blue, and black. The collection includes several examples of medieval illuminated manuscript work. It was this early attempt to match the beauty of the exquisite manuscripts that resulted in some of the finest examples of printing, dating from its first century. For many years, however, the printer tried to duplicate the illuminated manuscripts of the past, including hand applied initial letters and paintings. Just when the illuminated manuscript industry reached its zenith in the 15 th century, the invention of printing signaled its rapid decline. Though they may have possessed little or no formal art training, these men often evidenced great talent.Īfter centuries, the craft became dominated by the commercial manuscript industry, which turned out lavish works of manuscript art. After this, the illuminator, a qualified artist, might add small pictures, decorations, or large initial letters. ![]() After this, it went to the rubricator who painted in the initial letters, headlines and paragraph marks. It took a long time to complete a manuscript under such conditions and the text was just the beginning. The text to be transcribed would be read out by a lector and the rule of absolute silence prevailed in order to guarantee accuracy. In dark monasteries, the few precious writings of ancient times were preserved and copied in the scriptoria or writing room, where a group of trained scribes gathered with parchment sheets and pots of ink. At this time nearly all educated men were in the Church. The people became largely illiterate, so there were few books of any kind, as the great majority could not read or write. When the barbarian hordes swept across Europe in the sixth century, they destroyed the classical world of Greece and Rome as well as early Christian civilization. ![]()
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