Gothic Illuminated Manuscripts

Emma Pirani

Published by Hamlyn, hardcover with dustjacket, illustrated

Gothic Illuminated Manuscripts
During the Middle Ages, as Western Europe developed, the demand for religious and civil documents rapidly increased. It was then that the task of illuminating manuscripts blossomed into a fine art, culminating in the exquisite miniatures of the Gothic period. As abstract Byzantine elements decreased a new Western realism emerged, which characterised the Gothic style.

A sense of movement became all important, and emotion was shown by significant gestures and expressions. It is fascinating to compare those artists who have an intense dramatic style with others whose work is essentially refined and graceful. Mastery of composition, delicate handling of paint and imaginative attention to detail are brought together with consummate skill in the finest miniatures. In France, more than in any other European country, manuscript illumination became a courtly art.

Louis IX and subsequent French sovereigns built up their own libraries which increasingly demanded the services of scribes and illuminators. Religious works gave way to romances, chivalric poems, songs and works of history, in which the artists allowed their imagination full rein. It is in these charming genre scenes that the Medieval age has been immortalised, with gentle humour, insight and compassion.