Ancient European Costume and Fashion by Herbert Norris

Author:Herbert Norris [Norris, Herbert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780486165257
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

Goldsmith’s Work, Sculpture and Bronze-casting

These arts were brought to a very high state of perfection during this epoch, and many examples can be seen in Europe to-day.

Illuminated Manuscripts

The numerous manuscripts illuminated by Greek miniaturists, in common with all examples of Byzantine art, had many Oriental characteristics. These originals, which later found their way abroad, were copied by the monks of Western Europe at a later date. Many of these illuminated manuscripts, of various nations and periods, are wonderful works of art, like their prototypes, the Byzantine, and are invaluable to us at the present day for their information as to costume, furniture, and hundreds of other details.

The Iconoclastic controversy is the cause of the present scarcity of illustrated manuscripts of the seventh and eighth centuries; 59 but those of a later period are more plentiful, and exhibit a certain continuity of tradition with those dating from the fourth to the sixth century.

A marked characteristic style of Byzantine work, especially in the drawing of the figures, is their apparent stiffness, due very considerably to the archaic treatment necessitated by working out the picture in mosaic, undoubtedly the models for many illuminations. This stiffness was also partly due to the artist’s endeavour to impart to his figures a dignity and an intense feeling of veneration and spirituality.

The draughtsmanship is particularly masterful, and the drapery well arranged and defined, usually by indicating the folds with gold lines on brilliant colour. The backgrounds are often in gold, and, sometimes, especially in those of a later period, of a diaper pattern, all of which help to make the miniatures very ornate and decorative.

It was at the end of the ninth century that the leading principles of Byzantine illuminated manuscripts became firmly established, and the art reached its highest point of perfection during the tenth and eleventh centuries.

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