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.
Joachim and Anna, the Virgin’s Nativity (Collects, sermons and lessons for the Nativity of the Virgin)
Joachim and Anna pray for a child in the upper part of the initial S. Below, Anna reclines in bed as the midwives give the newborn Virgin her first bath. The image was painted by Hand D.
The page suffered water damage during the 19th century. Technical analyses did not identify any modern pigments, but an unusual occurrence may be indicative of partial restoration. The white bed sheets on which Anna lies are shaded in blue with ultramarine (hotspot 1), while the white curtains above are shaded with indigo (hotspot 2) – a difference in modelling technique not observed on any other page.