Assistants of the Rohan Masters
Artists
Several other illuminators assisted the Giac, Rohan and Madonna Masters.
The most accomplished among them painted three large miniatures (fols. 119r, 134r, 147r). The Pentecost miniature (fol. 127r) was provided by a less competent assistant who also supplied the scenes for the marginal cycle in this section of the volume (for instance, fol. 111v). The Giac Master designed all small miniatures – in the Calendar, in the marginal cycles and within the main text of the suffrages – and painted many of them himself. But two assistants, including the artist of the Pentecost miniature, helped him with the marginal cycles. The collaboration between the main artists and their assistants is most obvious in the image of the Virgin and Child on fol. 24r. The Rohan Master sketched the miniature, as his characteristic underdrawing reveals. He left the painting to an assistant who replicated the Giac Master’s tiled floors and beady-eyed faces, but had not yet mastered the handling of pigments, some of which have lost adhesion and flaked off the page.
Pentecost (Hours of the Holy Spirit, Matins)
This miniature was painted by an artist who was responsible for most of the marginal images in the Pilgrimage of the Human Life cycle. His favourite lead-tin yellow pigment, which has a slightly green tinge, can be seen both in the Pentecost miniature and in the marginal image. This artist was a close associate of the Giac Master and had ready access to his designs. He replicated the Giac Master’s typical architectural setting and tiled floor, but introduced a more convincing sense of perspective in both. The arms of Isabella Stuart have been added to the border.