J. Henry Middleton

“ The skilful use of gold both in the pigment form, and in leaf on a raised enamel-like ground, is specially characteristic of German and Dutch manuscripts of the fifteenth century. In some manuscripts very beautiful borders are executed in delicate scroll-work with fine lines and dots, all of burnished gold, the effect of which is very magnificent. ”

“ The subject of the miniatures shown in fig. 37 is a romantic story of a bride who was carried off by brigands and flung into a blazing furnace, from which, by the aid of the B. V. Mary, she was rescued unhurt by the knight, her husband.
School of the Van Eycks. In the fifteenth century an important development of Teutonic art took place under the Van Eycks and their pupils. In Flanders, especially in Bruges, Antwerp and Ghent, a very elaborate and beautiful class of illumination was produced, in some respects different in style from the Franco-Flemish school of art. ”

“ In some of the miniatures the figures are shown only in half length, so that the elaborately finished heads are painted to a large scale. The borders which surround the pages, enclosing both text and miniatures, are of the Franco-Flemish style, with realistic flowers, fruit, insects and the like, scattered over a flat gold ground, as is described above at page 143. The butterflies, dragon-flies, strawberries, irises and lilies are perfect marvels of naturalistic skill and beauty. ”

“ Gold is used profusely and with remarkable taste and skill in these Dutch illuminations, which frequently have a combination of mat, fluid gold applied with the brush over a ground of brilliantly burnished gold leaf. ”

“ Grotesque figures. Grotesque figures were great favourites with the Teutonic illuminators; devils and monkeys, pigmies fighting cranes, or strange monsters made up (like the Roman grylli) of several animals and birds united, are of frequent occurrence in German and Dutch illuminated manuscripts, more especially in Books of Hours, where such fancies were probably a relief from the gravity of the text both to the illuminator and to the owner of the book: see below, page 208.
Figure 41
Fig. ”

“ It is taken from a fragment of a manuscript of the Croniques de Jherusalem, now in the Imperial library of Vienna (no. 2533) . It represents Duke Baudouin (or Baldwin) , who was crowned King of Jerusalem, in the guise of a fifteenth century German knight, under a graceful Gothic canopy of characteristically German style. The date of this sumptuous manuscript is about 1450.
Influence on painting generally. As is remarked below with regard to Italian art, it is interesting to observe the strong influence that miniature painting in manuscripts had upon the larger pictures of Teutonic artists. ”

“ All altar-piece of the Cologne school, showing the influence of manuscript illumination on the painters of panel-pictures, especially retables.
Retable at Cologne. Fig. 44 shows a beautiful example of this, a small panel, now in the Archiepiscopal Museum at Cologne, representing the Virgin and Child seated on a flowery sward with a trellis covered with roses as a background, and lovely child-angels playing on musical instruments all round. ”

“ Initial Y from a German manuscript of the beginning of the thirteenth century, with a most graceful and fanciful combination of figures and foliage.
The Fall of Man. In the centre is the Fall of Man in a medallion frame with a conventionally treated tree on each side; all round are smaller paintings, including the great Rivers of Paradise and the Jordan, two Evangelists and their Symbols, with a series of medallion busts of Old Testament Saints linked together by scroll-work of foliage exactly like that in illuminations of contemporary date.
Figure 36
Fig. ”