The two tests of
knowledge never interfere with each other. To suppose they do is to
suppose a case of imbecility that even a lunatic must laugh to scorn. So
far, therefore, we think the illuminator mistaken in slavishly copying
the limitations of the glass-painter. It is no very great knowledge of
nature that is shown in these drawings. There is a good example of the
method of study followed by thirteenth-century artists in the
sketch-book of a French mason named Villars de Honnecourt, still kept in
the National Library at Paris.[36] In this book the artist has made
drawings, as he says, from the life--some are views, others drawings of
objects of art; one represents a lion of the medi?val heraldic type, yet
the artist assures us it is from the life. But there is no real
accuracy, everything is done with reference to some canon. It is,
however, quite free from the Byzantine influence, though by no means
free from a certain tincture of symbolism. The nude is rarely attempted,
but when it is it is certainly less ugly than in Carolingian and
Romanesque. To return to the Psalter--the style of the figures is rather
graceful, attitudes are gentle and modest, though the inclination of
head and body are such as to suggest a sort of undulatory movement in
walking that is scarcely natural.
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