Art History Lesson

Several months ago, Renae asked me to do a blog post explaining a work of art I am studying in one of my art history courses to further understand my love of art. So, here is the promised post that is long overdue!

In the Art of the Renaissance, we just finished our section on Italian Art and have begun studying the Northern Renaissance-- a period which produced truly delightful images! When people reference the Northern Renaissance, they are generally referring to old Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and an area called Burgandy, which was situated in modern-day France and Switzerland.

A lot of illuminated manuscripts were produced during this time, an art form that many miniaturist painters perfected. An illuminated manuscript is basically just how it sounds-- the page displays very fancy text and is usually accompanied by the addition of decoration such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations. It was typically reserved for special books and wealthy people often had richly decorated "Books of Hours" or prayer books on display in their houses to show off their wealth and possessions.

This page is from a Book of Hours and you notice the prominent use of blue color. Most illuminated manuscripts were done on a vellum paper, which was cost-effective and the most popular choice for many artists. Illuminators usually mixed their own colors, so the inks and dyes are varied in different images. The most expensive blue ink contained lapis lazuli which was imported from Persia. The lapis was crushed to a fine powder and washed multiple times to separate the deeply-colored particles from the rest of the stone. It was then mixed with size and applied with a brush.

A particular illuminated manuscript I want to focus on is Pucelle's Arrest of Christ and Annunciation to the Virgin, which was completed in 1325. Pucelle was a major French book illuminator, painter and specialized in miniature painting. He had an independent workshop in Paris and created a special Book of Hours for the French queen at that time-- Jeanne d'Evreux. She was only the queen of France for about three years, but she was a huge patron of the arts and was renowned for her piety. She is visible in the "D" below with a closer view onto the page:

These two scenes-- the arrest of Christ and the Annunciation--act as a religious narrative, but also as a commentary on what is going on in the world at the time. At the bottom of the page, or bas de page, with the scene on the right there is a courtly game of tag being played by a group of women. This directly parallels the narrative above of the Annunciation--dabbling with the image below of the angel tagging Mary as "It."

In the scene on the left--the arrest of Christ-- there is a game of comical jousting by knights riding on goats, rather than horses, at the bottom of the page. This is a playful interlude paralleling the Roman soldiers above.

Pucelle uses a technique called grisaille, or shades of grey--making the figures resemble sculpture, with touches of color added for faces, haloes and some still-life details. This style emphasizes a certain aspect of painted realism: three-dimensional modelling and relative placement in space. Grisaille also suggests a kind of half-life or emergent life, as sculptural ideal becomes incarnate in living flesh.

There is the conclusion of today's art history lesson-- I hope you have all been enlightened and I hope you can see why I find all of this so fascinating!