The Hours of Isabella Stuart

Gospel Sequences and scenes from the Pilgrimage of Jesus Christ

Texts and Images

These extracts from the four Gospels begin with the opening of St John’s Gospel which focuses on Christ’s incarnation. St Luke’s account of the Annunciation and the story of the Magi from St Matthew’s Gospel follow. The series ends with St Mark’s account of Christ’s Ascension. Large images of the Evangelists introduce their respective Gospel Sequences. Every page has a marginal miniature from the cycle illustrating the French poem Pilgrimage of Jesus Christ.

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FORS analysis (above) of a blue leaf shows characteristic features of both azurite and ultramarine, due to the fact that the area analysed by this method measures 3-4 mm across and therefore encompasses both the light and the dark blue portions of the leaf. The Raman spectrum (below) recorded on a micrometric portion of the dark blue shading shows a clear spectrum of ultramarine blue.
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Detail of the open book under magnification (12.5x), showing extensive losses in the lead white paint layer, with a pattern typical of the images painted by the Rohan Master in this volume.

St Mark (Gospel Sequence of St Mark)

Accompanied by his symbol, the lion, and looking up for divine inspiration, St Mark prepares to write his Gospel. The marginal scene showing the Flight into Egypt belongs to the cycle illustrating the Pilgrimage of Jesus Christ. The arms of Isabella Stuart have been added to the border.

Technical analyses revealed that ultramarine blue was used to paint Saint Mark’s blue tunic and the lion’s wings as well as the Virgin’s mantle in the side miniature. The rubric was also written with ultramarine blue ink. The blue leaves which surround the decorated initial were painted with azurite instead and shaded with dark blue ultramarine (hotspot 1). Surprisingly, the blue squares which form the diamond pattern in the miniature’s background were painted in ultramarine only in the lower portion of the background (below the figures of St Mark and the lion), while azurite was used for the upper portion of the decoration. This suggests that the Rohan Master painted the lower part of the background around the figures, but left the background’s completion to an assistant who used the cheaper blue, azurite.

The presence of two different blues in the background is confirmed by the infrared image, where ultramarine appears light and azurite dark (see Infrared Layer). The same image reveals the presence of elaborate underdrawing, also visible through the semi-transparent paint layers of the apostle’s pink robe. Its peculiar style is typical of the Rohan Master.

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