The National Gallery of Art’s collection of 50 leaves of vibrantly illustrated religious medieval manuscripts, dating from the 12th through the 16th centuries, is back on view for the first time since 1975. The earliest pieces here predate the invention of moveable type by three centuries. As paper would not become commonplace in Europe until the late 14th century, many of these manuscripts were scribed and illuminated on vellum — sheep, goat, or calf-skin, typically — and painted with golf leaf, making the pages appear to glow. Hence, “illumination.”
Recent scholarship has helped NGA curator Virgina Tuttle to reattribute several pieces whose creators could not be identified in the 1975 exhibition. (Artists did not typically sign or date this type of work.) She proudly declares that the NGA now leads the world in the scientific examination of these old manuscripts, using new techniques for analyzing the pigments used to make these colorful pictures as well as the preliminary sketches beneath.
