Other grand MSS. are the two
volumes of the "Mutacion de Fortune" of Christine de Pisan and the "Cit?
des Dames" of the same authoress. The volume of her poems, etc., in the
British Museum, is a marvellously fine work (Harl. 4431). The greater
part of this volume is in the earlier or "Berry" style, _i.e._ the fine
pen-sprays of ivy leaf of burnished gold. But the first grand border is
altogether transitional, consisting of the pen-sprays of golden ivy leaf
alternating with sprays of natural flowers. This innovation, it has been
said, was due to the school of van Eyck, but as no proof is forthcoming
that J. van Eyck ever worked on illuminating we may be content to say
that it arose about 1413, and that probably it came from Bruges. It is
the beginning of the Burgundian style. But the ornamental leafage is
different from ordinary Brugeois, inasmuch as it is "pearled" along the
central veins, and is not symmetrical. The pearling is perhaps a
suggestion from glass painting. It was very early adapted in German
foliage work. On the first fly-leaf are several signatures, including
the name and device of Louis Gruthuse: "Plus est en vous Gruthuse." The
miniatures still remain French with mostly panelled backgrounds, some
with landscape.
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