The Practice of Drawing
The Practice of Drawing
 

Even if it was stylised, drawing gave medieval artists plenty of opportunity to exercise their imaginations. Some of the most inventive drawings appear in the margins of early codices and manuscripts, followed later by more developed illustrations. Until the 12th century these texts were mainly produced in monasteries, where the scribe and illuminator worked in a special area called a scriptorium. By the 14th century, commercial scriptoria had sprung up in large cities like Paris and Bruges where illuminators produced large numbers of legal and liturgical books as well as Books of Hours for the devotions of private patrons.

 

SCIENTIFIC TEXTS

 

CODICES

 

Featured
Drawing of two soldiers killing a man and a dragon, ca. 875, ink on parchment, Harley MS 2886, London, British Library.
Drawing of two soldiers killing a man and a dragon, ca. 875, ink on parchment, Harley MS 2886, London, British Library.

This very early drawing comes from a legal text produced in northern France.

The Emperor Constantine burning Arian books, ca. 825, pen and ink on vellum, MS CLXV, Biblioteca Capitolare, Vercelli.
The Emperor Constantine burning Arian books, ca. 825, pen and ink on vellum, MS CLXV, Biblioteca Capitolare, Vercelli.

Another early drawing which comes from a compendium of canon law produced in northern Italy.

 ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS

 
Featured
Fragment of a compendium of the Genealogy of Christ, ca. 1200, ink on vellum, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Fragment of a compendium of the Genealogy of Christ, ca. 1200, ink on vellum, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In this 13th century manuscript, the history of the world is organised into six ages, each introduced in the manuscript with a line drawing. Here a Nativity illustrates the sixth age - that of the Incarnation of Christ.

Lorenzo Monaco, Decorated Initial with Scene of Christ Entering the Temple, ca. 1408-11 pen on ink, wash, on vellum, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lorenzo Monaco, Decorated Initial with Scene of Christ Entering the Temple, ca. 1408-11 pen on ink, wash, on vellum, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This very early, extremely rare, drawing by Lorenzo Monaco was intended for an illuminated manuscript which was unfinished. It was produced for one of the choir books of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence.

Zoomorphic Initial from the Corbie Psalter, early 9th century, northern France, Abbey of Corbie, Bibliothèques d’Amiens Métropole, MS 18C.
Zoomorphic Initial from the Corbie Psalter, early 9th century, northern France, Abbey of Corbie, Bibliothèques d’Amiens Métropole, MS 18C.

This psalter, or book of psalms, was produced in the scriptorium of the Abbey of Corbie in northern France, one of the main centres of manuscript illumination in the early Middle Ages. Its illustrations consist entirely of remarkably inventive initials for the first letter of the first word of each text.