Leaves from Laurent d’Orléans, La Somme le roi

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.

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1
Detail of the grey-brown hog under magnification (60x), showing a complex mixture of blue and orange particles in a white matrix. The FORS spectrum (below) shows the characteristic features of azurite (absorption bands at c. 1490, 2283 and 2351 nm), red lead (inflection point at c. 564 nm) and lead white (absorption band at c. 1447 nm).
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2
Detail of Potiphar’s wife garments under magnification (12.5x) showing the craquelure and fading of the organic pink mantle, which reveals the grey underdrawing, and the rather flat appearance of the red lead tunic.
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3
Detail of Lust’s mantle under magnification (12.5x) showing the gradation of blue used to model the folds. The FORS spectrum (below) identifies the blue pigment as ultramarine (reflectance minimum at c. 600 nm).
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4
Detail of Joseph’s mantle under magnification (60x) showing the gradation of colour from light to dark green and the black outlines defining the folds. FORS spectroscopy (below) made it possible to identify the colourant used for shading as indigo (reflectance minimum at c. 660 nm followed by a steep rise).

Full-page miniature in four compartments

The miniature contrasts the virtue of Chastity and the vice of Lust. At the top left is Chastity, an elegant, crowned woman holding a bird, a symbol of purity, while trampling on a vicious-looking hog, or possibly a wild boar, a symbol of lust. The two animals are the only areas in the miniature which contain ultramarine blue (hotspot 1). Charity stands opposite Luxure (Lust) who holds a manacle and towel, and is spitting blood. Both qualities are exemplified by the biblical characters depicted below: the virtuous widow, Judith, beheading the cruel Holofernes, and Joseph escaping the sexual advances of Potiphar's wife.

Across the entire miniature, the dark grey underdrawing (see infrared layer) contributes to the modelling of the draperies. This is clear in the tan-coloured mantles of both Chastity and Potiphar’s wife, where the organic colourant has partially faded and reveals the underdrawing (hotspot 2). A three-dimensional effect is achieved in most draperies using a gradation of colour in the folds (hotspot 3), or the addition of a darker pigment, as in the folds of Joseph’s green mantle (hotspot 4).

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