Book of Hours

Yellow and orange pigments

Artists' Materials

Technical analyses revealed the presence of realgar, lead-tin yellow type I, an organic yellow and an ochre rich in clay minerals. The same clay-rich ochre was also used to paint orange and brown passages on some folios. The presence of a yellow lead oxide, such as massicot, is also possible, and is especially likely in the miniature on fol. 36r.

Lightbox: 233
1
Detail of Christ’s proper right eye under magnification (25x). The glow of heavenly light reflected in it was painted with shell gold on the left, but with a mixture of vermilion and lead-tin yellow on the right.
Lightbox: 234
2
Detail of one of the grey gems in the medallion worn by Christ, under magnification (60x). The shiny dark grey outlines contain silver, while the pale grey gem was painted with a mixture of azurite and lead white, possibly with the addition of other components.

This page was illuminated by the Painter of Additional 15677. Christ’s image is framed within an elaborately carved wooden structure casting shadows on the pink wall behind. It incorporates three-dimensional images of saints and the story of St Veronica painted in shell gold on a monochrome background, simulating a scene carved in relief. The frontispiece to the prayer Hail, holy face’ fuses two popular devotional images – Christ as Saviour of the World (Salvator mundi), blessing and holding a crystal globe, and the Holy Face, Christ’s true image. The latter, not made by human hands, was miraculously imprinted on St Veronica’s cloth (known as the vernicle, sudarium or the Byzantine mandylion), when Christ wiped his face on the way to Golgotha.

Christ’s eyes reflect heavenly light, their glow painted in shell gold on one side, and a mixture of two luminous colours, vermilion and lead-tin yellow type I, on the other (hotspot 1). The globe is a pictorial study of reflection and refraction. Its silver highlights appear bright on the left side, but very dark – as if tarnished – on the right side. This may have been an intentional effect, aimed at conveying the three-dimensionality of this sphere. The dark grey outlines which decorate the grey gems in the medallion (hotspot 2) also contain silver.