Underdrawing
Artists' Techniques
Underdrawing, showing as thick grey lines through lighter pigments, plays an important role in the modelling of folds. It is best seen in the light pink cloaks of the female personification of Chastity and of Potiphar’s wife in MS 368, where the effect is further enhanced by the faded organic pink pigment. The infrared images of both fragments further reveal the underdrawing present in all the draperies. A pentimento in the form of a quadrilobe decorative pattern, which was drawn but never painted, is apparent in the central area of Noah’s ark in MS 192.
Full-page miniature in four compartments
The miniature contrasts the virtue of Equity (Fairness) with the vice of Felony. At the top left is Equity represented as a female figure, trampling on a recumbent wolf, and holding a plumb line and a medallion emblazoned with a lamb. Her tunic shows a craquelure pattern and the light tan colourant appears to have faded significantly, with both observations suggesting the use of an organic red dye (hotspot 1). The virtue is alluded to more obliquely by the depiction of Noah’s ark, in which the pairing of the animals suggests an equitable arrangement. The green areas below the ark, as well as the inner folds of Moses’ mantle, show severe degradation of the pigment (hotspot 2). The vice of Felony is not represented by a female personification, but is exemplified instead by images of Cain killing Abel, and Moses restraining two combative men. The shovel used by Cain was probably painted with shell silver over a thick layer of lead white (hotspot 3). The gold leaf in the background is decorated with a pattern of rinceaux motifs, which appear as darkened lines (hotspot 4).