Selective use of egg yolk binder
Artists' Materials
With few exceptions, egg yolk was only used as a paint binder for the images painted within the historiated initials and for the human figures in the borders: angels, cherubs (putti), the Cardinal’s portraits and the caricature-like heads.
This suggests a rigorous, hierarchical division of labour between the main artists, who painted the figures within initials and borders, and their assistants, who provided the ornamental parts of initials and borders. This paradigm is consistent with the results of technical analyses carried out on other contemporary manuscripts decorated by these and other artists, who gathered around the celebrated panel painter and illuminator Lorenzo Monaco. It is worth noting that blue areas painted with precious ultramarine never contain egg yolk, probably to avoid altering the pigment’s purple-blue hue by the addition of a dark yellow binder.
Historiated initials and border with Angelo Acciaiuoli’s portrait and arms (Mass for Pentecost Sunday)
The S introduces the Mass for Pentecost, while the smaller initial D with the dove of the Holy Spirit opens the collect (short prayer) recited on Pentecost Sunday. The presence of two historiated initials, and of the patron’s portrait and arms, signal the importance of the feast.
The initial S shows the Virgin and the twelve apostles receiving the Holy Spirit in an interior above and, below, the peoples of the nations of the world, to whom the apostles will soon begin to preach in tongues, gathered outside. This unusual and busy rendition of Pentecost is a faithful replica of an image painted by Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci in a manuscript produced at Santa Maria degli Angeli a decade earlier. Less crowded versions of the same composition were reused later by Lorenzo Monaco and Bartolomeo di Fruosino.
This page is representative of Hand B’s work. The Cardinal’s portrait (hotspot 1) exemplifies the monumental figures and robust facial types characteristic of this artist, as do the figures of the prophets depicted in the upper border (hotspot 2).