As an
example of the latter part of a continual deterioration, it should be
worse than anything preceding. Yet it is not so. It is certainly heavy
and rather dull, and the drawing far from excellent, but it is also, on
the other hand, far from "frankly horrible." In introducing examples of
other schools into this chapter the writer's object has solely been to
vindicate the illuminators of the eleventh century from the sweeping
charge sometimes made against them of absolute deterioration. Of the
school directly under our notice, the charge is certainly not true, and
the wretched stuff cited in support of it can only be looked upon as
accidental salvages of no artistic value whatever.
In proof that the book-work of the eleventh century was not all
worthless, we may refer to just one example. It is a MS. consisting of
but a few fragments executed at Luxeuil under Abbat Gerard II. The
remains are such as to cause regret for the loss of the rest. On one
page Christ is shown seated on a rich _sella_ covered with an
embroidered cushion in the manner of the consular diptychs. He is
clothed in a pale yellow tunic, over which is worn a purple pallium with
a white border. He is beardless, and his brown hair is kept close to the
head and neck, and falls over the shoulders.
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