Underdrawing
Artists' Techniques
The Annunciation painted by the Master of the Bible of Jean de Sy displays extensive underdrawing in ink. It not only structures the main elements of the composition, but also defines shaded areas with density and texture that shows through the thinly applied pigments.
The underdrawing in some of the miniatures painted by the Master of the Grandes Heures bears such a close resemblance to that of the Annunciation that one wonders whether the Jean de Sy Master might have sketched them, leaving the painting to his associate. The Master of the Grandes Heures was himself a talented draughtsman; his accomplished sketch of the Adoration of the Magi on fol. 102r favourably compares with the shakier underdrawing of the small miniature on the same subject sketched and painted by one of his assistant on fol. 128v.
Simple line drawing, which contributes little to the simulation of volume, is the Master of the Throne of Mercy’s most distinctive quality. The Master of the Coronation Book of Charles V, on the other hand, sketched his composition in a minimal, dry and linear style.
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.