EDLD 5366 Ancient Manuscripts I

I used to teach a unit on Illuminated Manuscripts years ago. I can't really say what my exact first impression was except some awe because of the beauty and skill involved.  However, I always looked for the most beautiful, skilled, and detailed images. The images needed to hold up as fine art exemplars for my students. I used examples that focused on all 4 parts of the manuscript, borders, text, initials, and illustrations.

I looked at many of the book examples from the websites that were provided in the lesson. I did this because they are very good websites and ones that I have not visited before. I have to say that the examples, while impressive are not nearly as glorious as the examples that I have used in my teaching.  The examples I viewed from the British Library are by far plainer, and focus on the text. While they do adhere to some of the principles, they are not interesting enough visually for me to want to analyze them.

I am using The Book of Kells for my example. The Book of Kells is closer to what I am used to seeing. The text and images are more decorative but still lack the skill of some other ancient book artists. That might be a matter of time or place.  However, these artist/authors might show importance in the same way as all texts of this nature, by using decorative initials and possibly the symbols. The pages using color can also connote importance.

The plate I am focusing on is the first of The Genealogy of Christ. There are at least three genealogy pages, the first two in black and white and a third in color. Since this is subset of the larger text and lacks continuity this tells me that the creators of the book were not very concerned with principles of design. That is not to say that principles were not followed. If coincidental, intuitively, or with purpose, I do believe there was some concern for order as the plate to the left makes boldly evident. It just seems that if one artist felt like using color he did without regard for continuity. Therefore, either ignoring the principles or just lacking in knowledge and skill.  I question whether or not the use of color indicates importance in this situation.  I would have to study this further before making that decision.

As I tell my students, following these rules really comes naturally to an artist. It is just a matter of being able to identify them and then begin to use them in a more purposeful way.

The Principles of Design

For our purposes I will adhere to the four principles being used in this course. However, these are very different from the principles I was taught as an undergraduate fine arts student, which in turn are different from the less complex principles that I teach as a fine arts teacher of a very young and inexperienced group of students. Even so, I teach 7 principles of design. Using four principles must be something that web designers and graphics designers must have come up with. I had never heard of such a thing, but I do know that the principles of design depend upon who you ask.