Hand D
Artists
Hand D painted the remaining historiated initials in the manuscript’s final section (quires 20-27). Those at the end of the volume were damaged by flood in the mid-19th century (fols. 271v, 274v, 281r, 284v), but the preceding images reveal the sophisticated style and painting technique of this artist (fols. 215r, 217v, 220r, 224r). His are the most delicate and expressive figures in the manuscript. His modelling of drapery is the most advanced, with subtle, carefully blended shades and highlights lending unprecedented plasticity to the figures. The blue shading of white fabrics is executed with minute, directional brush strokes (fol. 217v). Hand D may have belonged to the younger generation of Parisian artists who would develop the painterly modelling of drapery to the full by the 1280s and 1290s. Unlike the white flesh tones used by his collaborators, he painted pink flesh. His palette is darker and more saturated; he is the only artist to use a deep purple-grey hue and to outline the white hair of his older characters in blue.
Death and Assumption of the Virgin (collects, sermons and lessons for the Assumption)
This image, painted by Hand D, shows the Virgin on her death bed, surrounded by the apostles. The white robe and feet disappearing above allude to her Assumption. The image suffered water damage, causing superficial abrasion of the paint layer, especially noticeable in the draperies. Technical analyses did not give conclusive evidence for restoration, although two of the apostles wear robes of a much deeper pink colour than is found on other pages. While their composition is not in any way ‘suspicious’, as they contain no modern pigments, their different colour may suggest that they were not part of the original campaign of decoration.