Illumination (arts)

“ As I shall have occasion to speak of the progress of illuminating, and ornamental art, in a separate work about to be published, I merely hint here, at the commencement, that, for modern purposes of illumination, it would be highly pedantic to copy the earlier productions of missal painting, merely because they are antique, if in other respects they do not possess some artistic quality of graceful development both in outline and colouring, to which the modern artist may, with very good taste, give preference. ”

“ In the twelfth century when, as far as we know, the word illuminator was first applied to one who practised the art of book decoration, it meant one who “lighted up” the page of the book with bright colours and burnished gold.
These processes suggest the definition of the art. Perfect illumination must contain both colours and metals. To this extent it is in perfect unison with the other mediæval art of heraldry; it might almost be called a twin-sister.
As an art it is much older than its name. ”

“ That persons having a knowledge of drawing can and will make better illuminators than those who have not, there can be no doubt; and the more accomplished the artist, the better illuminator he will make is also obvious. Yet the art of illumination may be practised by persons who may be but indifferent 23 artists in general design, and with a great deal of success ”

“ In nothing is fine art more directly founded on utility than in the close dependence of decorative illumination on good writing. Perfect illumination is only writing made lovely; the moment it passes into picture-making it has lost its dignity and function. ”

“ By virtue of this ideality, this mutual relation between the parts, this interfusion of reflections and colour scintillations, this alternation and evanescence of transitional tones, a breath of soul and vitality is throughout communicated in the brilliancy, depth, the mild and juicy illumination of colour. It is this which gives us the magic effect of a masterpiece of colour; it is the unique gift of the genius of the artist who is himself the magician. ”

“ To the grace of youth it adds beauty, the beauty of adolescence. To fourteenth-century illumination we can give no higher praise than that it is beautiful. Not, indeed, because of its deliberate limitations, but in spite of them. For after ages have taught us that if in pure ornament and resplendent decorative completeness the pages of the fourteenth century cannot be surpassed, in miniature historiation it must take a second place. The skilled illuminators of the later schools are the masters of the mere picture. ”

“ In the art of painting, however, brightness and darkness together with all their gradations and finest transitions are themselves part of the fundamental artistic material, and it is a purely intentional appearance they produce of that medium, which sculpture gives form to in its native state. Light and shade, in short, the appearance of objects under this illumination, is effected by art rather than the mere natural light, which consequently only makes that kind of brightness, darkness, and lighting visible, which are the products of painting. ”

“ And I have little doubt that an excellent modern style of illumination is quite feasible, in which the greatest possible richness of colour effect is achieved together with extreme simplicity of form. ”

“ A complete edition of the works of a favourite poet is a good example for illumination in this manner. It would take far too much time, as well as being too costly, for the modern illuminator to write out a large volume of poetry, but it might be nicely printed and illuminated in this way. ”

“ To a short-sighted person, colours run together and intermix, outlines disappear, blues and reds and yellows become russets or browns, the lamps or candles of an illumination spread into an unmeaning glare, or dissolve into a milky way. He takes up an eye-glass, and the mist clears up; every image stands out distinct, and the rays of light fall back upon their centres. ”

“ The light of a lamp enclosed within an alabaster vase is still lamplight, though shorn of lustre and toned to coloured softness. Even thus the spirit, immersed in things of sense presented to us by the figurative arts, is still spirit, though diminished in its intellectual clearness and invested with hues not its own. To fashion that alabaster form of art with utmost skill, to make it beautiful, to render it transparent, is the artist's function. But he will have failed of the highest if the light within burns dim, or if he gives the world a lamp in which no spiritual flame is lighted. ”

“ The art of illumination or decorative writing really begins when there is a desire to have the written matter presented in a beautiful form, and to those who could not read the illumination alone was of importance. ”

“ The one fine attribute conspicuously lacking in the work is its illumination, generally too yellow; the fine quality of light, naturally directing the hearts with the intelligences of the beholder to the central fact of the subject theme, "I am the Light of the World." ”

“ That to which we shall confine our attention is a rather special one. Both its processes and its results are peculiar. Mere pictures or pretty ornamental letters in sweet colours and elegant drawing do not constitute illumination, though they do form essential contributions towards it; and, indeed, in the sixteenth century the clever practitioners who wished, in bright colours, to awaken up the old woodcuts used to call themselves illuminists, and the old German books which taught how the work should be done were called Illuminir bücher. ”

“ Has illuminating done nothing for the manufactures of this country? Ask Bookbinders, Silkweavers, Architects, Sculptors, Decorators, and every handicraft 77 besides, in which decoration forms its chief ingredient—ask the "School of Design" whether the inspiration of its latent genius, was not derived from the impetus modern illumination has given to decorative Art in general. ”

“ Now her art is much too good to be used merely for illumination; it is essentially and perfectly that of true colour-picture, and that the most naïve and delightful manner of picture, because, on the simplest terms, it comes nearest reality. ”

“ LLUMINATION, in whatever form practised, can never be properly regarded as any other than one of the genera into which the art of Polychromatic decoration may be subdivided. What was originally termed illumination, was simply the application of minium or red lead, as a colour or ink, to decorate, or draw marked attention to, any particular portion of a piece of writing, the general text of which was in black ink. ”

“ The next extract I give is of great interest in the technical history of illumination, on three accounts: firstly, because it guides the student to recognize in madder the purple stain and colour, so highly prized in the early periods of the art; secondly, because it shows him the manner in which fugitive vegetable tints were protected from the decomposing influence of the atmosphere by an albuminous varnish; and thirdly, because it illustrates the ordinary modern processes of under painting, and glazing with transparent colour. ”

“ Good decorative illumination does not mean illumination that reveals every hidden corner of a room. We need shadows to betray form, relieve monotony and give depth to the ensemble. If in an illuminated area light is of a uniform intensity, we have a bad effect. ”

“ When I look at the objects for some moments the sensation of weariness overcomes me, it becomes impossible to separate the things one from another. I have always wondered if a day will not come when this problem of lighting will be better solved. The question of illumination, of reflection, of rays of light falling upon objects, is so essential that I cannot understand why so little importance has been attached to it. Nowhere have I seen a [Pg 65] museum where the lighting was perfect. ”

“ What is meant by art?—The art faculty—How artists may be compared—The aim of illumination—Distinction between illumination and miniature—Definition of illumination—The first miniature painter—Origin of the term “miniature”—Ovid's allusion to his little book.
The desire for decoration is probably as old as the human race. Nature, of course, is the source of beauty, and this natural beauty affects something within us which has or is the faculty of reproducing the cause of its emotion in a material form. ”

“ It must be a matter of delight to all lovers of true art that that most useful society, the "Arundel," has been of late turning its attention to the production, by means of chromo-lithography, of some of the finest examples extant of Italian quattro and cinque-cento illumination. ”

“ Again: because ancient illumination was almost entirely executed in colours, in the use of which water and some glutinous medium were the only "vehicles," there is no reason why modern illumination should not be worked in oil, turpentine, encaustic, fresco, tempera, varnish, and by every process in which decorative painting is ever wrought in these days. It is in such an extension that the most valuable functions of the art are likely to consist in all time to come. ”

“ One would hesitate to recommend the one without the other, as the general tendency of the illuminator who neglects nature study, going to ancient examples only, is to produce weak imitations of mediæval work.251 If this is the case, there can be no opportunity for real living art. ”

“ In these we meet with the plenitude of English mediæval illumination,—its freedom of drawing, its vigour of colour, its exquisite delicacy, and the general facility of design its wayward lines attest. In the best work there is a playfulness not to be often found in the productions of the contemporary European schools. It needs but little ingenuity to expand such features as those which constitute figs. 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, from small book embellishments to large motives of elegant mural decoration. ”

“ None appear to have been embellished with illumination; [3] so that for proof of the practice of the art in classical times, we are thrown back upon the classical authors themselves. The allusions in their writings to the employment of red and black ink are frequent. ”

“ The last, and by much the most splendid illumination, is that for which the artists of the middle age, and especially the old illuminators, seem to have reserved all their powers, and upon which they lavished all their stock of gold, ultramarine, and carmine. ”

“ These objects light renders cognizable under their distinctions of form by irradiating them, that is, illuminating to a greater or less degree their obscurity and invisibility, and permitting certain parts to be more visible, namely, as they approach the spectator, and others, on the contrary, more obscure as they withdraw from him. For light and darkness, putting for the present on one side the particular colour of an object, is generally speaking due to the relative remoteness of the illuminated objects from us in their specific degree of illumination. ”

“ I do not trade on other men's brains, but endeavour to live by my own. Those who encourage the empiric in art must buy experience, and be contented with their shillings worth. (?) I have added only some additional matter on colours and composition, as applied to illumination, which I hope the public may find useful—in other respects the seventh edition is like its predecessors—a claimant to public favour. ”

“ The art of the book began with the illuminated manuscript, the early printed books being based entirely on the manuscripts that preceded them; and the same thing may be said with regard to the application of decoration to printed lettering generally.
The practice of illumination in the present day should result in something more than weak imitations of illuminated borders which were produced in the mediæval period. Illumination ought to be a real living art to-day. ”

“ Conversely we find, more especially in the treatment of landscape, reflections of light, the flash and its counterfeit, that wonderful echo of light, which arises from the interplay of light and dark, and offers an ample and progressive subject of study both to the artist and the spectator. Such a scheme of lighting, which the artist has either by direct imitation or imaginatively conceived in his work, can, however, by itself only be a transient one, which is subject to rapid change. ”

“ When commencing the study of the art of illumination it is extremely important that it should be approached from the proper standpoint. It is to be feared that this has not always been the case. The lure of the bright gold and colours has often led both teacher and taught astray, and the proper use of the pen in writing has been almost entirely neglected. ”

“ Light and shadow are beautiful things, capable of a thousand blendings, softenings, and harmonizings, which one loves to have represented: the great Artist of all loves light and shadow; why else does he play such a magical succession of changes upon them through all creation? But for an artist to make the most solemn mystery of religion a mere tributary to the exhibition of a trick of art, is a piece of profanity. What was in this man's head when he painted this representation of the hour when his Maker was made flesh that he might redeem a world? Nothing but chiaro-scuro and foreshortening. ”

“ In the few remarks I am about to offer in respect to what the Art of Illumination really should be now, I propose to treat briefly, but specifically, of its application to each of the different substances on which it may be most satisfactorily worked, in the following series: vellum, paper, tracing-paper, canvass, plaster, stone, metal, wood. Dealing with design only in this section of my essay, I propose, in the following and concluding one, to adhere to the same order in noticing the best processes by which amateurs may carry out the class of work I would recommend to their notice. ”