Illumination paléo-Christian woman

Illumination of the Roman Lower Empire and illumination paléo-Christian woman . The enluminés manuscripts of this period are of a great scarcity. Some are known by copies which were made by it at one later time. The forms testify to the passage of a monumental art (the Bas relief) to painting on Parchemin which will éclora in the insular Enluminure (or Irish Enluminure) and in the Enluminure mérovingienne.

The Quedlinburg Itala

Oldest Roman Manuscrit enluminé is the Quedlinburg Itala which dates from the 5th century. The Miniature S lie within square or rectangular scopes, rather coarsely traced, which occupy the totality of the page on which they confer a “effect of window”. The shapes of the characters and the horses point out those which one finds on the Bas-relief S Romans.

By chance, following the pulling up of the pages, painting was scaled by places, and one could discover that precise indications were given for the painter: “Made a Prophet with a Zither, another with a double Flute, a third with a Cymbal, and then Saül and its young servant also prophesying with the Psalmodium”. Later, to the times Romance and Gothic, the indications will be given by hastily drawn drafts.

The Vergilius of the Vatican

One has also two manuscripts of Virgile of this time: the Vergilius Vaticanus (the Vatican, ms. lat. 3225) there remain 50 illuminations, but which was to comprise approximately 245 of them, - and the Vergilius Romanus (the Vatican, ms. lat. 3867), also incomplete.

In the Vergilius Vaticanus , the Miniature S are framed in red, with the same effect of window as in the full pages of the Quedlinburg Itala . But one sees also appearing isolated miniatures, integrated into the text, and of which the base with the width of a column of writing.

The colors are varied, moderated. The architectural elements are numerous, with effects of prospect. The style falls under the ancient pagan pictorial tradition.

In the Vergilius Romanus , there is no more that only one illumination at the beginning of each book. The characters are stiffer, thicker, and, like the animals, encircled of a dark feature. As a whole, the images are more naive than those of the Vergilius Vaticanus .

Certain specialists, as Carl Nordenfalk think that these two manuscripts date from first half of the 5th century, whereas others locate them at the 6th century.

The Bible of Leon Ier

Although having disappeared, other works of this period are known to us by the copies which were made by it. It is thus of large the Bible of Leon I {{er}}. At 9th century the miniaturists of the School of Tours took model on illuminations of this Bible.

At the 6th century the Littérature layman is not represented practically any more in the enluminés manuscripts. The books are intended for the almost exclusive use of people of Eglise. New page layouts appear, - in particular the full pages with columns in semicircular arch between which the guns are laid out of agreement of the Évangiles, establish by Eusèbe de Césarée.

The Evangéliaire of Holy Augustin de Canterbury

In 596, the Pape Gregoire Large the sends Saint Augustin de Canterbury évangéliser the Anglo-Saxon . He entrusts to him a specimen of the Évangiles whose paintings will influence the artists of the School of Canterbury at the 8th century.

The Pentateuque of Ashburnham

Should finally be mentioned an extremely curious manuscript: the Pentateuque d' Ashburnham . The manuscript was probably carried out in North Africa, at the 7th century in a workshop which had not been subject to the Arab influence yet. There remain, of what was a Bible, 19 illuminations on full page representing of the scenes since the Création of the world to the Hebrew exit of Egypt of led by Moïse.

These paintings intrigued specialists insofar as one can observe indubitable analogies with those of the Beatus. One can see, for example, with folio 6 a bottom of page made of three broad band coloured horizontal, as one finds some in the manuscripts Mozarabs. With folio 9, the representation of the Déluge is structured as certain that one can see in Beatus. It is what could even make think that the work had been enluminé in the South of the Spain.

Other pages are presented in the form of " éclatés" buildings, in which are held outside or indoor scenes (for example with folio 25). Illuminations comprise a profusion of characters, animals and plants.

This manuscript is remarkable in what it swarms with images which are as many testimonys on the daily life of a world of which we do not know any more but very little of things: culinary activities, construction of buildings, agricultural work, births and burials, breeding, etc

“the Civilization that reflect the Miniature S of this Bible completely disappeared and we currently do not have any benchmark allowing us to locate it starting from other works of the same time. It resembles some Atlantis whose only Manuscrit enluminé that the chance forwarded to us lets remain the Mirage” - Carl Nordenfalk.

Fauna and the flora are those of areas close to the deserts, and reinforce the assumptions on the geographic origin of opens, without allowing to slice in a final way.

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