Painting the flesh
Artists' Techniques
Three of the main artists (Hands A, B and C) modelled flesh tones on a lead white base (e.g. fols. VIr, 42r, 191v). Hand B, and occasionally Hand C, added a touch of red on the cheeks (e.g. fols. 42r, 177v). Facial features and hair were outlined with fluid carbon black lines.
Hand D used a pink colour instead for the base layer in flesh tones (e.g. fol. 220r). He rendered facial features and other anatomical details in a sophisticated way, with brown shadows and white highlights yielding a more realistic effect.
David praying with Franciscans and Dominicans (Psalm 38)
David prays to God in the upper part of the initial D. Below, two groups of friars – Franciscans on the left and Dominicans on the right – look up. They point to their mouths in reference to the opening verse of Psalm 38, written in gold on the right and continuing overleaf, Dixit custodiam vias meas ut non delinquam in lingua mea (‘I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue’). The initial was painted by Hand B.