照明手稿（Illuminatedmanuscript），用金或银装饰的手写书，绚丽的色彩，或精心设计或微缩图片。尽管各种伊斯兰社会也在实践这一艺术，但欧洲拥有最长、可能是最发达的照明手稿的传统。
术语“照明”最初表示用金色或更少见的银色手写书籍的文字的装饰，给人的印象是页面已被字面上照亮。在中世纪时期，当艺术达到顶峰时，在剧本或工作室内的专业化要求区分“历史”（即相关绘画的插图文本）和“照亮”的人（即，提供装饰性的装饰作品）大写字母，通常溢出到边缘和边界，几乎总是以叶子或粉末形式引入黄金）。这两个功能有时会重叠，特别是当画廊和其他无关紧要性开始填充首字母和边界时，甚至在中世纪时期，这种区别往往模糊不清。在现代，该术语表示一般的早期手稿的插图和装饰，无论是否与黄金。
在照明手稿的伟大时代，照明者的艺术经常在艺术的发展中发挥重要作用。手稿的便携性使其成为将思想从一个地区传递到另一个地区，甚至从一个时期到另一个时期的简单手段。总的来说，手稿中的绘画发展与纪念性绘画的发展并行不悖。在15世纪下半叶在欧洲开发印刷之后，照明被印刷插图所取代。
ColourTheory, Optics and Manuscript Illumination
Medieval optics, or Perspectiva, emerged in the 13th centuryfrom earlier theories of light and vision. Optical studies ofgeometry and colour informed artistic practices. Perspectiva’sproponents held that the shape and colour of objects wastransmitted to our eyes by a pyramid of visual rays. This pyramidwould become the tool of linear perspective, advocated in Alberti’streatise On painting (1435). 13th-century scholars revised ancientcolour theories. They removed white and black from the chromaticscale whose seven main colours, they argued, could be mixed into aninfinite range of hues.
These advances coincided with developments in painting, bestobserved in illuminated manuscripts. By c.1300, illuminators werecreating three-dimensional images with a sense of spatial depth. Acentury later, they were simulating atmospheric effects and opticalillusions, including mirror reflections and the fleeting colours ofpeacock feathers.
Dedication of the Temple of Solomon Miniature from the EgmondBreviary Northern Netherlands, Utrecht, c.1435-1440
Dedication of the Temple of Solomon
Miniature from the Egmond Breviary
Northern Netherlands, Utrecht, c.1435-1440
ARTIST: one of the Masters of Zweder van Culemborg (activec.1415-1445)
This image belonged to a manuscript made in Utrecht for amember of the ruling family of Guelders-Jülich, probably DukeArnold of Egmond. It shows Solomon praying in his newly-builtTemple in Jerusalem. Linear perspective unites the tiled floor,columns and vaulted ceiling into a convincing three-dimensionalspace. Its central axis, linking Solomon, the scroll of the Torahon the altar, the statue above and the window, leads the eye acrossthe depth of the building. The archway, while positioning theobserver outside the sacred space, offers a privileged view of thesolemn celebration.
Cat. 90 - Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 1-1960
Given by Francis Wormald in 1960
King David Initial B from an Antiphoner Italy, Bologna orRome, c.1490-1500
King David
Initial B from an Antiphoner
Italy, Bologna or Rome, c.1490-1500
A penitent David kneels in a palatial courtyard. Anextraordinarily varied palette is employed to simulate surfaces andtextures, from the marble columns to the bejewelled robes, and toconjure up spatial depth. The path behind the fence and the loggialeads the eye across the river, past the gondola, to the city,through the archway, onto the hills and up to the castle. Fromthere a magnificent vista opens over valleys and mountainsstretching to the horizon. The sophisticated use of colour,consistent light source, linear and aerial perspective creates acoherent and expansive pictorial space.
Cat. 97 - Fitzwilliam Museum, Marlay cutting It. 25
Bequeathed by Charles Brinsley Marlay in 1912
Betrayal and Arrest of Christ Leaf from the Hours of Charlesde Martigny France, Tours, c.1485-1494
Betrayal and Arrest of Christ
Leaf from the Hours of Charles de Martigny
France, Tours, c.1485-1494
ARTIST: Jean Bourdichon (1457-1521) and workshop
This leaf belonged to a Book of Hours illuminated for BishopCharles de Martigny by the royal painter and illuminator JeanBourdichon. He conveyed the drama of Christ’s arrest by contrastingdeep night shadows with highlights executed in varyingconcentrations of shell gold. Beneath a starry sky, blazing torchesilluminate armour, clothing, hair and flesh. Bourdichon’s skilfulsimulation of reflected light draws the viewer’s attention toimportant details of the pictorial narrative, notably the money bagthat Judas clutches as he betrays Christ with akiss.
Cat. 102 - Fitzwilliam Museum, Marlay cutting Fr. 4
Bequeathed by Charles Brinsley Marlay in 1912
Last Judgement Miniature from the Hours of Albrecht ofBrandenburg Flanders, Bruges, 1522-1523
Last Judgement
Miniature from the Hours of Albrecht of Brandenburg
Flanders, Bruges, 1522-1523
ARTIST: Simon Bening (1483-1561)
These images, three more at the Fitzwilliam Museum (twodisplayed in section 13) and many others now dispersed across theworld, belonged to the Hours of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg(1490-1545), Primate of Germany, friend of Erasmus, and patron ofDürer, Cranach and Grünewald. The manuscript was painted by SimonBening, the most sought-after Flemish illuminator of the16th-century. His compositions include motifs and pictorialstrategies that reveal knowledge of works by eminent painters,illuminators and printmakers, including Jan van Eyck, the ViennaMaster of Mary of Burgundy, Gerard David, Schongauer andDürer.
Bening reserved the most dramatic treatment of light and themost sophisticated use of colour for the fires of Hell. In the mainimage, red lead, indigo, azurite, lead white, copper green, carbonblack, lead-tin yellow and yellow ochre are accentuated with sparksof shell gold. An organic dye creates the purple flames in the sideborders, while lead-tin yellow provides flashes of infernal light.Figures in the lower border derive from Dürer’s Apocalypse-inspiredwoodcut, The Massacre by the Four Angels. Bening reminded hispatron that all sinners, even high-ranking ecclesiastics, would bepunished at the end of time.
Cat. 105c - Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 294d
Purchased by the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum in1918
www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/illuminated
Guardian Angel with a mirror-image of death Book of HoursFlanders, Bruges, c.1460-1470
Guardian Angel with a mirror-image of death
Book of Hours
Flanders, Bruges, c.1460-1470
Standing over an open grave, an Angel holds a mirror with askull that stares at the viewer – a reflection of their futurestate. A metaphor for vanity, the mirror here invitesself-examination. Introducing a prayer to the Guardian Angel, theimage underscores the medieval preoccupation with death’sever-present threat. The wall and window reflected in the mirrorare tangible components of the viewer’s own space. The skull toobreaches the boundaries between painting and reality: as it castsshadows on the wall and reflects the daylight streaming through thewindow, it becomes part of the here and now.
Cat. 106 - Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 53, fol. 6v
Bequeathed by Viscount Fitzwilliam in 1816
The Three Living and the Three Dead Book of Hours WesternFrance, c.1490-1510
The Three Living and the Three Dead
Book of Hours
Western France, c.1490-1510
Three noblemen enjoying a hunt on a fine summer day aresuddenly confronted by three hideous skeletons who proclaim: ‘Youare what we were and we are what you will become.’ Usuallypresented as a single scene, this image was a favouritefrontispiece to the Office of the Dead in Books of Hours, alongsidemirror-reflections of skulls grinning at the viewer. Here, theriders and skeletons mirror each other across the page. Thechilling anticipation of their physical contact, face to face, whenthe book is closed is a constant reminder of death, ever-presentand undiscriminating.
Cat. 107 - Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 92, fols. 132v-133r
Bequeathed by Viscount Fitzwilliam in 1816
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