The Pontifical of Renaud de Bar

Blue pigments

Artists' Materials

Azurite and ultramarine blue are used side by side and cleverly combined in overlapping layers to create multiple shades of blue throughout the manuscript.

Azurite is used in the diamond-patterned backgrounds of some miniatures, as well as for all the small blue initials and line-fillers and for blue areas of the decoration extending into the borders, including blue leaves.

Ultramarine is reserved for the blue robes and for other small details such as the blue decoration of the white tent on fol. 1r. It is also mixed, in very small amounts, with lead white in the criss-crossing lines which decorate the pink backgrounds of some miniatures.

The two pigments are combined in the miniatures’ blue frames, where a light blue base layer of azurite is overlapped by darker details painted in ultramarine and ornamental motifs added in lead white.

Finally, indigo provides a cool, blue-grey ground for the raised gold leaf in the initials’ inner backgrounds and the miniatures’ frames.

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1
Details of the overpainted coats of arms in the lower border with the corresponding near-infrared images (below). The contrasting appearance of azurite and ultramarine under infrared light – one dark, the other light – facilitates the identification of Renaud de Bar’s arms, which are intact in the Prague portion of the manuscript.
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2
Detail of a retouched area under magnification (7.5x). The missing top half of the original figure sitting on a branch has been roughly overpainted with blue and red leaves by the same hand who complete the unfinished miniatures in quire 15 (cf. fols. 98r and 100r).
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3
Detail of the church in the lower border under magnification (7.5x), showing the careful adjustments made in the final stages of the door’s decoration with respect to the original sketch visible underneath.
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4
Detail of a gilded leaf under magnification (32x), showing the blue bole containing indigo.

Lay people praying at a reliquary (Office for the Dedication of a Church)

A bishop blesses a church in the historiated initial O and kneels at a prayer desk to say his devotions in the historiated initial V. The full bar border is decorated with male and female figures, animals, birds, a pair of jousting hybrids and coats of arms that have been overpainted. A bishop, accompanied by two acolytes (assistants), blesses a church in the bas-de-page.

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