I was able to visit the Getty Center in Los Angeles last summer. I was planning to head straight for the post-impressionist art I love, when I happened to go into a room full of illuminated manuscripts. Wow! I was completely captivated. They are truly amazing.
These books were all made on parchment (calf, sheep or goat skin), by hand. Before the rise of universities in the 13th century, manuscript production was done by monks in monasteries. When demand for books grew, manuscripts were then produced in urban centers. Commercialization led to the rise of professional parchment makers, scribes and artists. Once the parchment has been prepared, the body of the text was written. Space was left for fancy initials and illustrations. If used, gold was then added and finally pigments were added last as they were the most expensive. I had trouble picking just a handful of images to put on here, the Getty has literally hundreds of incredible pages in their archive.
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Images taken from the Getty's Open Content Program.
I'm really enjoying your journey with artistic stopping-off points along the way. Someone gave me a birthday card with the great wave from yesterday's post on my 40th and told me I had to "go with the flow". From today's post I recall having to create an illuminated letter. I chose E for Evil (!) and included a monk sticking a sword in a devil. Very cultural.
ReplyDeleteI should add the illuminated letter was a school project.
DeleteThe Great Wave print really gets around. I think its one of the most popular pieces of Japanese art. I have another wave piece from a different artist (that I think is equally sweet) coming up towards the end.
DeleteI wish I would have had a school project making an illuminated page. That sounds like the perfect way to teach history! I always hated the way I was taught history, it was so boring in school.
I have an Illumination kit I got from a catalog a few years ago, that teaches you how to do it and I think it has the inks and paper too. It's a beautiful art and I haven't tried it yet.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like such fun! Next time you have a stretch of time with nothing to do, give it a try. I'd love to see what you come up with.
DeleteIt is so amazing to think of creating books prior to the printing press! how they did this ... with such patience is beyond me!
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