Gothic Manuscript Illumination and Stained Glass

SAJTH, July 2016, Vol. 9, No. 2 Gothic Manuscript Illumination and Stained Glass PRAMOD KUMAR SINGH* and MADAN SINGH RATHORE** *Pramod Kumar Singh, R...
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SAJTH, July 2016, Vol. 9, No. 2

Gothic Manuscript Illumination and Stained Glass PRAMOD KUMAR SINGH* and MADAN SINGH RATHORE** *Pramod Kumar Singh, Research Scholar (TRF), Department of Visual Arts, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India. **Madan Singh Rathore, Professor, Department of Visual Arts, UCSSH, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.

ABSTRACT Gothic art grew up in Europe at the time when Byzantine and Arab art were dying away. It was to a large extent the result of religious emotion and enthusiasm. The year 1150 to 1550 is known as the period of Gothic art. This art describes the style of medieval art which is flourishing from about 1150 to 1420 in Italy and to 1500 in the north. It has its origin in architecture and is therefore; primarily an architectural style, yet the term are used in a derivative sense also for sculpture and painting. One of the principal factors underlying the development of Gothic stylistic traits was growing effort to unite the Christian dogma of the world focusing on art interpretation in ancient art scriptures and to analyse the relevance in modern times.

KEYWORDS : Gothic Manuscript, Illumination, Stained Glass Introduction The gothic was born in France. The first half of the thirteenth century constitutes the main building period of these great French Cathedrals. From France Gothic art quickly spread to England and soon Germany, Flanders and North Spain and Portuguese. In Italy, however it never became entirely indigenous and the style was often modified to suit the requirement of wall paintings. At the centre of Gothic art stands the religious building. Church architecture remained the principal concern of artistic activity even in the 15 th century and forms the most extensive and complete body of surviving Gothic works. Figurative art was produced in direct connection with the church, which also had a stylistic influence on the forms of secular architecture. Medieval church : During the period of Romanesque and early Gothic art the monasteries were the great centres of artistic teaching, so the catholic church was the most powerful artistic influence of the middle ages. Religion was to be joyous thing for the people, and in their churches they were to find beauty, colour, and mystery. The love of symbolism and allegory made a great influence upon art during the early part of middle ages, which became absorbed in representing the inner meaning of things. In the 12th century, which was the beginning of Gothic architecture, the scope for painting was relatively limited. In fact the gradual elimination of wall space © South Asian Journal of Tourism and Heritage

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resulted in less room for wall painting. In their place stained glass windows gave new opportunities for the display of design and colour. In illumination manuscripts the border line between Romenesque and Gothic style is particularly hard to find. In the late 13th century. Paris became the most influential centre for book illumination. French style and probably French masters also influenced the style of Gothic illumination in England which produced its finest examples in 14th and 15th century. The art of window glazing, which had been very little practised in the west, exercised a far reaching influence upon, Gothic architecture. The art was probably derived from that of enamelling, and the window were designed as a means of teaching the people and as on expression of faith. The glass that was used was made into small pieces, a few inch in width and slightly irregular in surface, so that the minutely differing planes caught the light at varying angles and aided by colour produced a wonderfully decorative effect. Gothic Manuscript Illumination The Gothic manuscript illumination flourished chiefly not only in France, England and Germany during the 13 th and 14th centuries. The word 'illuminated' comes from a Latin word 'illuminative' where it means 'adorn'. Much of the pictorial activity in early Gothic times were centered on book illumination. The books were written by hand and decorated with paintings and ornaments of different kinds. The decoration were of three main types(a) Miniatures or small pictures, incorporated into the text by coping the whole page or part of the border. (b) The initial letters either containing scenes (historical) or with elaborated decorations. (c) Borders, which may consist of miniatures, occasionally illustrative, or more often composed of decorated motif. They may enclose the whole of the text space or occupy only a small part of the margin of the page. There were two main types of illumination, the fully coloured and the outline drawing. These were for most part written on skin or parchment from 14 th century paper wad used. Perhaps every book were decorated in some form or another but certain books were more lavishly decorated than others and in particular books connected with services of church which were presented by the rich patrons to monasteries. Before A. D. 1000 Gospel books were fashionable to be followed in the 11 th and the two following centuries by PSAITER, The illumination and illustration of books in the eleventh century was very local. In 12th century a general integration of style in the direction of equilibrium comes. The ornaments tend to emphasize the stems of its foliations and to organize then into slower and heavier rhythms, giving them solidity and design. Towards the end of the century and even in the thirteenth,

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initials resolves themselves into coiled spirals, resembling often a wash spring in effect, the figure becomes more static in posture and acquire a reticent solemnity, twelfth century produced much more stabilized, symmetric and consistent compositions than 11th century. Gothic illumination finds its purest expression in French and English manuscripts of the 13th century. Traditional writing of 9th century changed into spiky appearance of the Gothic black letters in the 12th century. The thorny aspect of the text transmits itself to the initials and both are mutually assimilated work of art. In the second half of the thirteenth century, the initials extend its stem or 'bar' towards the bottom of the page and leaves of ivy, thorn bush, oak begin to sprout from the stem. Towards the end of 13th century the conventional leaf work was gradually overtaken by naturalistic leaves and plants. In the 14th century this leafy border is carried around the page, and separates the two columns of the tent as well with the 'bar' becoming more cylinder in the process and losing more and more, its character of a living think. The border frame of the fourteenth century is filled with actual and unreal creatures reproducing in miniature the real and imaginary fauna. The gold were used in the background of the miniatures in the first half of the 13th century. English illumination follows the French so closely that at first sight it is hardly distinguished from French. The difference is seen in their way word ornamentation and their fondness for scenes of hell and combats. In Germany the imitation of Byzantine accents comes in the art of illuminated manuscripts from 1250 century there comes a craze for French taste and German quality finds expression more in iconography than style in the fourteenth century, in French the most famous illuminator of the century was Jean Fouquet of tours. He introduced importance innovations in the representation of space, with the invention of printing the illuminated books gradually went out of fashion. During the 15th century and 16th century illuminations were added to printed books. These usually consisted of initials and borders, miniatures were less common. Gothic Stained Glass: Gothic Stained Glass: The history of medieval stained glass starts from the 12 th century which was the result of the gradual elimination of wall space into one of void spaces over a skeleton frame work. This art began in the service of church and is of Byzantine origin Stained glass were employed not only for geometrical, or other purely decorative patterns but also for pictorial designs. The necessity of stained glass was to control the abundant lighting. Thus the architectural construction and window design influenced one another reciprocally. The earliest examples of stained glass in France are some windows at Saint - Denis near Paris. Window at the early Gothic period until about 1250 A. D. are commonly strong

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in colour with a dominance of blue (the usual colour for the background) red, golden, yellow and green. Others include violet, brown, pinkish hue used especially for rendering flesh. The separate pieces of glass are small; the effect is of a vibrant mosaic of intense translucent colour. Black enamel is used for painting details and in mass where reduction of brilliance is required. For example in the crucifixion in 1190 at St. Remi Reims, we see the glasses joined more structurally and the forms are marked by dark contour. Christ body is more exposed through colour but in the two sides below the cross the two Madonnas are grief - stricken, and a feeling of pain, suffering and terror comes on their face. The early windows not only enriched the architecture but also served to illustrate the spoken word, whether the incidents is of Bible history and the story of saints or the teaching if theology. They are pictorial like sculpture or wall painting. The windows in its early stage were divided into two classes. One where the windows are divided by armature - into a small number of small compartments, medallions, containing successive or related incidents of a story or symbolic theme, set against the patterned background within a decorative outer border, usually of foliage as it is evident in Chartres, Canterbury, Sens Lyon are some examples are Crucifixion, the Ascension etc. Second, was the Clerestory windows which were filled with a single standing figure usually looking like an architectural niche as is seen in Augsburg, Chartres and Bourges or with two such figures in compartments one above the other of this latter kind the choir Clerestory windows of Canterbury illustrating the descent of Christ from Adam are an example. A crucifixion window at poitiers of intense emotional power shows a masterly combination of medallion and large figure types. A theme well suited to medallion windows is the TREE OF JESSE of Chartres Cathedral. Here the symbol of tree is an embodiment of the divine spirit. It is the symbol of vegetation and therefore of life itself. The tree stem seems to be emerging from the body of Christ and ascending to the top. The subject was also adopted by the manuscript Illuminators and for wall and ceiling painting. This theme appears first at St. Denis, it was then repeated in many other churches. By the beginning of the thirteenth century, however the French glass making in north and centre of France was dominated by the style of Chartres. The composition of the window changed in the thirteenth century : the grid frame of verticals and horizontals in the iron armature was curved to enclose the figures scene into circles, half circles, lozenges and squares. The subject were from histories of saints and incidents and persons of Old Testament. In the windows of Le Mans, the passion is summed up in three medallions of Christ: carrying Cross, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection with a last judgment at the windows summit. The broken colour that vibrated from the minute partitions of the design in windows of

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the twelfth century is somewhat missed in thirteenth century glass, where the figure drawing was clearer and done in larger panes. The beautiful leaf work of the earlier broad borders and unfigured areas was replaced by a conventional mosaic of red and white bands on blue, while red was more and more preferred to blue as background. The windows are more readable and their stories are filled with homely detail. As the 13th century advanced, the medallion windows declined in quality. The foliage borders became narrower and was filled up with wine plants or composed of an initial letter or other simple motifs repeated at intervals. The figure drawing lost its vigour. Leaves were no longer of conventional kind but naturalistic. Towards 14th century, perspective begins to intrude itself into these architectural setting. A change in general tonality was observed. Intermediate tones like brown, olive green tended to find place instead of the earlier dominant primaries like ruby blue, golden yellow etc. A minor change during the 14 th century is the substitution of Gothic black letter for lombardic lettering in inscription. After 1300 foliage became naturalistic in Germany too. The range of colours in German early Gothic windows was apt to be more varied than French glass with a large proportion of violet and brownish green later the concept of church windows underwent steady modification from the growing custom of introducing either portrait figures of the donors. Such figures steadily increased in scale until the 16 th century the donors were represented as large as the patron saints by whom they were often accompanied or as the participants in the incidents from sacred story depicted in the window. They were shown as if themselves on lookers or even actors in biblical scenes. The black colours in glass itself was used in stippled and shaded masses to give projection to figures and perspective to the architectural setting. But soon by the influence of Renaissance Graphic Art the Gothic glass painters began putting their effort to create the highest possible degree of realism in representation and the whole area of window was treated as a single field for a picture which meant to detract the window from the architecture. Conclusion Gothic Illuminated Manuscript had not only its significance in terms of artistic and historical value but also in the maintenance of a link of literacy offered by non illuminated text. It offered an information value in an era when new ruling classes were no longer literate at least in the language used in the manuscripts. Majority of these manuscripts are of religious nature and later on an increasing number of secular text were illuminated Medieval manuscripts, illuminated or not, were written on paper, parchment and vellum. These are the only surviving examples of paintings at that time of period. Stained Glass as an art form were seen during

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Medieval Ages, in churches, cathedral and chappels. It has been one of the most direct and expressive way to depict the biblical scenes, the lives of Christ's, saints and scenes of popular and daily life in the history of European Art and gradually engulfed every other being at the world towards this magnificent work. Gothic period witnessed a stylistic and icnographic evolution and its relevance became greater and can be compared to that of the other arts, such as paintings, sculpture and miniature art series of discoveries during each century from gothic to present day modern Architectural Glass has contributed to the evolution of the art of the stained glass. Today this art form has crossed the border of craft to Fine Arts. The experimentation with new materials in construction and in the arts in general has given stained glass a new momentum, revolutionizing its method of production and opening a way for endless technical and expressive possibilities.

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