They are pink, pale
green, yellow, violet, blue, just to please the eye. That the painter
had a system of colour-harmony is plain, but he paid no regard to the
facts of city life, unless, indeed, it was the practice of the medi?val
Byzantines to paint the outside of their houses in this truly brilliant
style. Possibly they did so; we have similar things in Italy even
nowadays.
No doubt the French illuminators of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries drew from these sources both their perspective and their
architectural colouring. As for ornamental illumination, the principal
method of decoration was a square heading,[10] perhaps including a
semicircular arch sweeping over several arcades, the corners and
wall-space being occupied either with arabesque patterns, showing them
to be after the time of Leo III., or with scrolls of line-ornament
enriched with acanthus foliages. Under this the scribe has placed his
title.
[10] It has been thought to represent the Greek {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
PI~}, and to mean {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON
WITH TONOS~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}, a
gate or door.
[Illustration:
CARVED IVORY COVER
LATIN PSALTER OF MELLISENDA
12TH CENT.
_Brit.
Pages:
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58