Master of the Coronation Book of Charles V
Artists
This artist, active in Paris c. 1355-1380, was among Charles V’s favourite illuminators. He is named after his masterpiece, the Coronation Book commissioned in 1365 by the recently crowned king (London, BL, Cotton MS Tiberius B VIII). The Master of the Coronation Book of Charles V painted eighteen small miniatures in the Grandes Heures. Two of them (fols. 213r, 249v) are in quires 27 and 35 which also contain small miniatures by the Master of the Grandes Heures. Yet, the style, palette and painting techniques of the two artists differ considerably even when they collaborate within the same quire or on the same bifolio.
Deposition (Votive Mass for Good Friday)
This miniature represents the characteristic style of the Master of the Coronation Book of Charles V – dry and linear by comparison with that of his colleagues. The protagonists have the idiosyncratic physiognomy typical of this artist's works: the eyes set far apart and the broad, flat, strongly highlighted base of the nose that endow the faces with vacant, mask- or beast-like expressions. The Master of the Coronation Book of Charles V is also the only 14th-century illuminator in the manuscript to favour bright yellow hues, which he obtained with lead-tin yellow. He mixed this same pigment with indigo in green areas, unlike his colleagues who chose orpiment as the yellow component in green mixtures.