CHAPTER XIII
THE COLOURS USED BY THE MEDIÆVAL ILLUMINATOR
One can hardly study the illuminated work of the Middle Ages without being interested in the methods employed by the artists of this period. The MSS. still in existence, with colours still fresh and bright, make one curious to know what colours were used to produce this result.
Our knowledge of the colours used in classical times is derived chiefly from Pliny’s “Natural History” and the writings of Vitruvius. Theophrastus, in his work on stones, also adds some description of pigments.
It appears from these writers that the earth colours, such as the ochres and siennas, were well known, as also was the green earth terra verte. Blues and greens were obtained from the ores of copper, one of the most notable being azurite, a blue carbonate of copper. Verdigris was prepared by the action of vinegar on copper. Cinnabar, a native variety of red sulphide of mercury similar to our vermilion, which is the same thing artificially prepared, and orpiment, the native sulphide of arsenic, were also colours used at this period.
A number of white earths were also employed, chalk being the most important. White lead was used, being prepared in practically the same way as the best is to-day. Lakes were made by dyeing chalk or gypsum. Several vegetal dyes were used for this purpose, such as madder, weld, and woad. In addition to these dyes, lakes were prepared from kermes and the celebrated murex. Kermes is a red dye caused by a small insect similar to that of the cochineal insect; it was used for dyeing and for making pigments, both in classical and mediæval times. The murex was a species of shellfish from which was extracted the famous purple dye. This was the dye used for the purple vellum that was used so much in the early period.
The blacks used were carbon-blacks, such as lamp-black, bone-black, or the black prepared from grape husks and vine leaves.
Indigo was undoubtedly in use, and it is highly probable that the red resin known as dragon’s blood was also in use. Pliny, in his “Natural History,” describes the fighting between the elephant and the dragon, and he states that the name cinnabar should be given to the thick matter which issues from the dragon when crushed beneath the weight of the dying elephant, mixed with their blood. It is thought that he may be referring to this pigment, for, in another chapter, he refers to India sending the corrupt blood of her dragons and elephants. There is one colour, which was one of the principal pigments of the Middle Ages, of which no mention is made in the classical period, and that is ultramarine.
It is difficult to be certain as to how the different colours were mixed, but the ink used was prepared from lamp-black mixed with gum and water, and it is probable that the colours were mixed with either gum, glue, or egg.
The Lucca MS. of the eighth century, in the cathedral library at Lucca, contains, amongst other things, a short list of pigments. There is very little difference between the information given here and that given by Pliny. This MS., however, gives the first distinct directions for making artificial vermilion. It is also interesting as giving definite information as to how colours were mixed for working on parchment or vellum, as the following quotation plainly shows: “On wood the colours being mixed with wax, on _skins_ fish-glue being mixed.”
In the twelfth-century MS., the Mappæ Clavicula, the greater part of the Lucca MS. is repeated.
The Schedula Diversarum Artium of Theophilus is also of about the same date, and is a very important MS. It is divided into three books, the first dealing with painting, the second with the manufacture of glass, and the third with metal-work. It is evident that Theophilus, who was a monk in some German monastery, was a worker in metal. However, he collected quite a lot of information on various forms of art work. It is, of course, in the book on painting that the information with regard to colours is found.
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