Manuscript Painting at the Court of France

« Fourteenth-century French manuscripts have been characterized as being striking examples of varied fluid styles, expressive of narrative and enhanced by light and delicate modelling. Incidental drolleries often show a direct and tender observation of the natural characteristics of birds, beasts, insects and flowers. In a number of the major manuscripts we find an intriguing new feature : the figures are no longer plainted in full color, as is the rest of the miniature, but are portrayed in pale, semi-lucent monochrome or grisaille. The color "abstraction" of such miniatures makes for a distinct decorative harmony between picture and script which could never exist between black lettering and miniatures painted in full color. François Avril of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris has selected and described the individual folios reproduced from these masterworks. »--Quatrième de couverture.