Differences in palette
Artists' Materials
Three of the main illuminators of the Grandes Heures used yellow sparingly and employed vergaut for green. The Master of the Coronation Book of Charles V, however, painted numerous details in bright lead-tin yellow and combined this same pigment with indigo for his greens.
In the miniatures by the Master of the Throne of Mercy, the orange areas, which he painted with minium like everybody else, have deeper, dark red overtones. This unique feature is due to his use of vermilion, applied as a ‘glaze’ layer over the minium.
Deposition (Votive Mass for Good Friday)
This miniature represents the characteristic style of the Master of the Coronation Book of Charles V – dry and linear by comparison with that of his colleagues. The protagonists have the idiosyncratic physiognomy typical of this artist's works: the eyes set far apart and the broad, flat, strongly highlighted base of the nose that endow the faces with vacant, mask- or beast-like expressions. The Master of the Coronation Book of Charles V is also the only 14th-century illuminator in the manuscript to favour bright yellow hues, which he obtained with lead-tin yellow. He mixed this same pigment with indigo in green areas, unlike his colleagues who chose orpiment as the yellow component in green mixtures.