Hand A
Artists
Hand A painted slender figures and delicate, melancholic faces with long eye lashes and complex flesh tones, layered and modelled with remarkable finesse. His historiated initials contain legible compositions and clearly articulated figures despite the dense pictorial narrative.
![](/illuminated/media/w800h800/hotspot_image/MS 30_1r_zone7_Cardinal's face and hands_7-5x_HS1.jpg)
![](/illuminated/media/w800h800/hotspot_image/MS 30_1r_zone6_nose and PL eye of Christ_25x_HS2a.jpg)
![](/illuminated/media/w800h800/hotspot_graph/MS 30_1r_X20_flesh_Pb, Hg, Fe_HS2b.jpg)
![](/illuminated/media/w800h800/hotspot_image/MS 30_1r_HS3a_7-5x.jpg)
![](/illuminated/media/w800h800/hotspot_graph/MS 30_1r_F4_pink_organic_HS3b.jpg)
![](/illuminated/media/w800h800/hotspot_image/MS 30_1r_zone6_green robe of Christ_60x_HS4a.jpg)
![](/illuminated/media/w800h800/hotspot_graph/MS 30_1r_X21_green_Cu, Pb, Sn_HS4b.jpg)
Historiated initial A with Christ blessing and border with Angelo Acciaiuoli’s portrait and arms (Mass for Advent Sunday)
The elegant figures with delicate faces are representative of Hand A. The complex modelling and careful blending of the flesh tones demonstrate his remarkable technical skill (hotspots 1 and 2). He used egg yolk as a binder to paint the figures, both in the miniature and in the border (hotspot 3), and favoured mixtures of azurite with yellow pigments to obtain green hues (hotspot 4).