Illumination

Throughout the middle ages the monks would copy down and often illuminate the Bible. It is a tradition that was picked up and influenced due to the Jews and the Hebrews. They would illuminate their scriptures and often borrow stylistic flourishes from one another, which later influenced the Christians who began to illuminate their Bible.[1]

The material often used before the 14^th century was vellum which was a paper made of calf skin, tempera paint, which was made with an egg base, and other natural pigmentations for color, such as precious stones, berries, etc., and finally gold leaf. It was primarily Gospels and other important religious books that received the gold, and the extravagant colors.[2] They were trying to separate the simple from the sacred, and the sacred deserved to be made even more beautiful.

After doing the reading from the assigned books, and having the pretty pictures of illuminated scripture passages, as well as prayers, bouncing around in my mind, I decided to try my hand at it. While I did not use vellum, tempera based paint, or gold leaf, I was able to create something rather pretty. I chose to illuminate the Nicene Creed, as it was such an important part of our church, as well as the first half of the course. To do the illumination I used, colored pencils, a gold paint pen, and black tea.   

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[1] Cahn, Walter. 2009. "Early Medieval Bible Illumination and the Ashburnham Pentateuch/Jewish Book Art between Islam and Christianity; The Decoration of Hebrew Bibles in Medieval Spain." Jewish Quarterly Review 99, no. 2: 285-290. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed June 27, 2014).

[2] 2013. "Illumination, in art." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition 1-2. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed June 28, 2014).