Tooling and decoration of the gold leaf
Artists' Techniques
The burnished gold leaf, applied over a chalk ground, was incised with lines and dots. Additionally, on fol. 2v, spirals were painted over the gold with an arsenic sulphide yellow pigment, possibly orpiment. On fol. 3r the spirals were created with shell gold instead and the surface was further embellished with a pattern of azurite blue fleurs-de-lis.
Historiated initial D with the Enthroned Virgin and Child (Hours of the Virgin, Matins)
The three-dimensional modelling of the Virgin Mary’s garments, with their multiple folds, distinguishes this initial from the more linear treatment of other draperies in the manuscript and suggests that this image was painted by a different artist. The materials employed also set this initial apart. These include coarser pigment particles (hotspot 1), a darkened organic shading on the Virgin’s mantle (hotspot 2), flesh tones containing lead white but no gypsum, and the use of shell gold for the decoration painted over the gilded background (hotspot 3). The border contains some pigments not found in the miniature: an organic red, used to obtain a red hue (hotspot 4) and a yellow arsenic sulphide pigment used in the wing of a bird (hotspot 5).