The Psalter-Hours of Isabelle of France

Black bole

Artists' Materials

The highly burnished gold leaf in the backgrounds of all miniatures and historiated initials was laid over a black-coloured bole which contains calcium and copper. Visible through small losses in the gold leaf, the black bole reveals the main artists’ awareness of the subtle changes in the tonality of the gold leaf produced by varying the colour of its base. In the smaller, ornamental initials, which were painted by assistants, the gold leaf is laid over a white bole, commonly found in 13th-century Parisian manuscripts. Exceptionally rare, black bole was used only in very few deluxe manuscripts, including royal commissions. It appears in the full-page miniatures which one of the artist involved in this Psalter-Hours (Hand C) contributed to the St Louis Psalter (Paris, BnF, MS lat. 10525, fols. 25v-28). 

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Detail of the red quadrilobe under magnification (16x). XRF analysis (below) allows the identification of gypsum (Ca, S) and an organic colourant (P, Al, K). The high amount of phosphorous may indicate that the dye was extracted from insects.
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Detail of the folds in the tan-coloured robe under magnification (20x). The dark blue colour of the folds was obtained with indigo.
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Detail of the brown hat under magnification (60), showing blue, orange and translucent red particles in a white matrix. FORS and XRF analyses identified the components of this complex mixture as indigo, red lead, an organic red and possibly lead white.
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The XRF spectrum (above) of the green wall reveals the presence of a copper-based pigment, which also contains chlorine (Cl). The shape of the reflectance spectrum (below) allows the identification of verdigris, a pigment with variable composition which in this case includes copper chlorides.

David’s burial

King Solomon grieves as his father’s body is being lowered into a tomb. Illustrating an episode in the Old Testament Book of Kings (III ii.10), this scene was painted by Hand A.

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