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Conserving the Past for the Future
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A Conservation Tour
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Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain: The Effects of Light on Medieval Manuscripts
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How a painting on parchment or vellum is made
The desired end result was an unblemished, white and semi-translucent sheet with a relatively smooth, yet slightly toothy, surface suitable for receiving the drawings and inks and paints.The sheets were cut to size and a scribe or illuminator applied the text as well as the page layout to indicate the overall format. This was done in carbon black or iron gall ink. Inks were applied with quill pens.
Next, an illuminator, possibly the master of the manuscript workshop, drew in outline the basic design of the illumination in metal point. This under-drawing could be gone over in ink. The next step was to apply the gold, followed by the application of the colored pigments; each color was ground and then blended with a suitable water-thinned binder.
Gold was applied to the surface in the form of an ink, made from gold powder in a water-thinned binder, or in the form of gold leaf. The gold leaf could be applied directly to the skin support by first coating the area to be gilded with a binding medium such as glair or gum.
The Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain was richly painted with bright, saturated colors derived from natural (vegetable, mineral, and animal) extracts. It was possible to derive colors from artificial sources by the 14th century and some of these may have been used here as well. In good condition, the colors appear luminous.
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