Painting the flesh
Artists' Techniques
The materials and techniques used by each of the artists to paint flesh tones are amongst their most characteristic traits. Hands A, B, C and D all painted a blue base layer for flesh tones with woad, which is one of the most distinctive features of the decoration. The subsequent pink surfaces, red outlines and white highlights were applied as distinct layers. This is especially visible in the figures painted by Hand C, whose facial features are angular and exaggerated.
The Gaibana Master used earth pigments in flesh tones, which have a greenish rather than blue undertone. His Associate employed large amounts of azurite instead. The careful blending of paint layers by both artists results in much smoother modelling of faces compared to that found in faces painted by the other illuminators.
The Three Women and the Angel at the Tomb
This, one of Hand A’s most impressive compositions, displays his salient features, including the elaborately painted drapery and the gold-tooled halos. It also shows his familiarity with iconographic compositions by the Gaibana Master, as it resembles the painting of the same subject in the Paduan Epistolary.