[Gothic Art (3) [continued (8):]] English Manuscript Painting c[irca] 1280-1350 [15th March 1991]

[Redbook8:343][19910315:1000ff][Gothic Art (3) [continued (8):]] English Manuscript Painting c[irca] 1280-1350 [15th March 1991]

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‘English Manuscript Painting c[irca] 1280-1350

‘By any standards, the late 13^th century and the first half of the 14^th must count as one of the golden ages of English painting and figurative design. Works of the highest quality survive in all manner of different media, including manuscripts, panel-painting, stained glass, and needlework. The various media are interrealated, and together offer a beautifully complete pattern of artistic production.

‘The period is best seen as one in which a number of individual artists with their workshops responded in various highly personal ways to the style associated with the royal court and abbey at Westminster. Important in the exposition of that style is the Psalter begun for Edward I’s son, Alphonso, shortly before his death in 1284 (the Alphonso Psalter; British library, London). This has much in common with contemporary French art, particularly in the delicacy of the figure drawing and painting. But the vitality and variety of the border decoration go far beyond anything in contemporary Parisian work, and it was in the development of this particular potential that many of the subsequent manuscripts excelled.’

– ibid [Encylopaedia of Visual Art 4]: 608

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