506 APPENDIX TO PART II

dormant at this time of the world, because bound down and darkened by the absurd scientificalities which it was the fashion of the day to promulgate and insist upon as indispensable. A day or two since a person who had attended his previous lectures had sent him some books of sketches, stating that he had been in the habit of illuminating, not for profit, but merely because he found it satisfied his mind. These books were filled with the most marvellous sketches and most felicitous ideas. Among the various sketches he had found one which was a perfectly new thought, even on the subject of “The Lord’s Supper,” a theme which had exhausted the genius of some of the finest painters of ancient and modern time. “And when they had sung a hymn, they went up to the Mount of Olives.”¹ The sketch represents the group of the disciples singing the hymn-a most beautiful and charming subject for the painter. A few days since he had set some boys to work to produce some specimens of illuminated letters; they had been most successful in their work, and the lecturer exhibited the results of their labours in two large initial letters for the “Kyrie Eleison.” There was, therefore, none of that insuperable difficulty about the use of ornamental letters which some persons had imagined, and he was most anxious to impress upon those of his audience who might be engaged in the execution of ornamental designs, and lettering on walls and shop-fronts, how easily and with what success they might introduce initial letters of this description. It was surprising to see the dexterity and skill with which many of these writers could strike the curves of the letters they were painting. It was a most marvellous power, one which could only be attained by constant and long practice; but he was anxious to see this sleight of hand turned to greater advantage, and used to more effect. They might depend upon it, that if they once introduced these ornamental letters, they would achieve for themselves a vast amount of success, and carry the public along with them to an extent of which they could at present form no adequate opinion.

41. There were two points about the art of illumination which, in closing, he desired to refer to: they were the uniform attention which was paid to purity of colour, and the vast power of the grotesque which could be advantageously employed by those who were in the habit of using the art. An examination of the works of the old illuminators would show in the most striking manner the great attention which they always paid to purity of colour. Between the good colourist and the layer-on of paint there was the widest possible difference. The Dutch excelled in the art of laying on paint, but their work was far different from that careful system of colouring adapted by the illuminators of the thirteenth century. Observe how carefully, and with what exquisite taste, the small lines and dots of white are introduced in order to produce harmonious effects where the immediate contrast of strong or bright colours would offend the eye. In some of the smaller work of these illuminated missals, the white was introduced in such small quantities as to be only visible by the aid of a microscope. Some specimens illustrative, in a high degree, of the great care and labour bestowed in this respect, were handed to the audience. In the works of the old masters of painting, the holiest subjects were always depicted in the most powerful and purest of colours; as the subjects lowered in character, they gradually lost their dignity of colour, until they came to the lowest

¹ [Matthew xxvi. 30.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]