Designing, gilding, and painting an illuminated letter D in a 15th century French style.
I realized as I started work on my illuminated letter D that, so far, most of the styles I have chosen for my Illuminated Letters Alphabet Project have been from the 15th century. This isn't exactly an accident. It's more of a reflection of the history of illuminated manuscripts. While the 15th century saw the rise of the printing press and the death of the elaborate illuminations I love so much, this process took time ... decades, actually. So, instead of being a period of decline, the 15th century was a time of great flourishing in the manuscript arts. There were more people who could afford these books and commission their creation and a great number of artists spread across Europe, offering a much more diverse variety of styles than in previous centuries. So, basically, there are just more examples of illuminated manuscripts from the 15th century than previous periods and more styles to choose from. Moreover, as printed books gained ground, the truly wealthy invested in unparalleled, highly elaborate prestige manuscripts meant to display their power and privilege--and further seperate themselves from the only somewhat wealthy (and all the rabble, of course).
Want to take a peek at the previous letters I have already done? (Click here: Letter A, Letter B, Letter C.)
All that being said, I promise that I will be covering styles from other centuries as well. I have a lovely Romanesque style on tap for the F.
So, without further ado, here's my illuminated letter D in a 15th century French style.
I'm using the term French here as a bit of a shortcut. I'm using it as a stylistic term rather than a strictly geographical/historical one. While this style was prevalent in the 15th century kingdom of France, it was also prevalent in Burgundy and other parts of northern Europe that are now part of the modern nation of France. So maybe I sould I call this French-y?
I primarily used three manuscripts as my guide, although there are many more in this style. Here are some pages and pieces of I stuck together in one image to make it easier for me to reference them while I worked.
As you can see with this style, the illuminated letters themselves play second fiddle. It's the borders that really shine, so to speak. Also, most of the letters for this style of manuscript were painted a very pale pink-y color. That just wasn't working for mine, so I went with my trusty--and still historically accurate--blue.
If you know what to look for, you can tell that the original manuscripts were gilded not with leaf but with shell gold, which is paint made from very finely ground gold flakes. Think of it as the world's most expensive glitter. The 15th century shows a marked increase in the use of shell gold vs leaf gold. For one, you can paint on top of shell gold. Second, if you're into showing off your wealth, shell gold costs more. It just takes more gold to cover the same amount of surface area.
I did not use shell gold. I falt gilded with Ormoline gilding medium. Why? For one, I decided to paint this on gesso board instead of paper and I wasn't sure the shell gold would adhere to it. And second ... I just didn't want to.
So about that gesso board.... What a pain in the ass. I used a gesso board made by Ampersand. It has a silky smooth surface, which is why I wanted to use it, and it does show colors beautifully. The flat gilding was really, really flat for once. No paper texture to contend with and the gilding really shined. But, painting on it was much more difficult. Paint lifted off the surface far too easily, making blending my gouache really touchy. Also, if the paint was not applied with perfect eveness, it turned blotchy quickly, which is always a problem with gouache but was magnified with the gesso board. If I do decide to use gesso board again, I would try a different version of it. Maybe. For the next letter, though, I'm switching back to paper.
Anyway, I'm going on vacation now. I'll be back in a few weeks and tackle the E. According to my rough outline for this project, it should be an Italian style.