Page 104

MEDI2EVAL ORNAMENT.
On Plate LXVI. are arranged a great variety of conventional leaves and flowers
from illuminated
MSS. Although many of them are in the originals highly illuminated, we have
printed them here
in two colours only, to show how possible it is to represent in diagram the
general character of
leaves. By adapting these leaves or flowers to a volute stem, almost as many
styles in appearance
could be produced as there are separate ornaments on the page.  By a combination
of different varieties
they might be still further increased, and by adding to the stock by conventionalising
the form of
any natural leaf or flower on the same principle, there need be no limit
to an artist's invention.
In Plates LXXI., LXXII., LXXIII., we have endeavoured to gather together
types of the various styles
of ornamental illumination from the twelfth to the end of the fifteenth century.
There is here, also,
evidence of decline from  the very earliest point.  On Plate LXXI. the letter
N is not surpassed by
any example in the subsequent styles we have reproduced. Here the true purpose
of illumination
is fulfilled; in every way, it is pure decorative writing.  The letter itself
forms the chief ornament;
from this springs a main stem, sweeping boldly from the base, swelling out
into a grand volute
exactly at the point best adapted to contrast with the angular line of the
letter: this is beautifully
sustained again by the green volute, which embraces the upper part of the
N, and prevents it falling
over, and is so nicely proportioned that it is able to sustain the red volute
which flows from it. The
colours also are most beautifully balanced and contrasted; and the way in
which the rotundity of
the stems is expressed, without attempting positive relief, is a fruitful
lesson.  There are an immense
number of MSS. in this style, and we consider it the finest kind of illumination.
    The general
character of the style is certainly Eastern, and  was probably a development
of the illumination
of the Byzantines.  We believe that, from its universal prevalence, it led
to the adoption of the same
principle so universally in the ornamentation of the Early English, which
follows exactly the same
laws in the general distribution of form.
This style, from constant repetition, gradually lost the peculiar beauty
and fitness which it had
derived from first inspiration, and died out by the scroll-work becoming
too minute and elaborate,
as we see in No. 13 of the same plate. We have no longer the same balance
of form, but the four
series of scrolls repeating each other most monotonously.
From this period we no longer find the initial letters forming the chief
ornament on the page,
but the general text becomes enclosed either in borders round the page, as
at No. 1, Plate LXXII.,
or with tails on one side of the page, such as 9, 10, 11, 12. The border
gradually comes to be of
more importance, and from the vignette form, which was at first general,
we gradually arrive through
the manner of No. 15 to that of Nos. 7 and 2, where the border is bounded
on the outer edge by
a red line, and the border is filled up by intermediate stems and flowers,
so as to produce an even
tint. No. 8 is a specimen of a style very prevalent in the fourteenth century,
and which is very
architectural in character. It is generally to be found on small missals,
and surrounding very beautiful
miniatures.
The gradual progress from the flat conventional ornament, Nos. 13 and 14,
to the attempt at
rendering the relief of natural forms in Nos. 15, 7, 2, will readily be traced
through Nos. 9, 10, 11
There is also to be remarked a gradual decline in the idea of continuity
of the main stems, and
although each flower or group of leaves in Nos. 15, 7, 2, may still be traced
to their roots, the arrangement
is fragmentary.
Up to this period the ornaments are still within the province of the scribe,
and are all first
outlined with a black line and then coloured, but on Plate LXXIII. we shall
find that the painter
began to usurp the office of the scribe; and the farther we proceed the more
does the legitimate object
of illumination seem to be departed from.
We have the first stage in No. 5, where a geometrical arrangement is obtained
with conventional
104