Material intelligence

Techniques

Medieval making begins as a negotiation: what can this vellum, ivory, glass or gold hold, where will it fail, how does it take colour, and what sequence turns a commission into an object?

1Illumination

Folio from the Belles Heures with a framed miniature and foliate border

Manuscript illumination

Painting and gilding on prepared animal skin, page by page, in books made by hand.

Learn the process

2Carving

Ivory casket carved with knights and ladies in low relief

Ivory carving

Relief cut into elephant tusk for book covers, icons, caskets and mirror cases.

Learn the process

3Metalwork

The Chasse of Champagnat, gilded copper with blue and green enamel

Champlevé enamel

Glass fused into cells cut from a copper plate, then gilded, as practised at Limoges.

Learn the process

4Glass

Stained glass

Coloured glass cut to a cartoon, painted with vitreous pigment, and leaded into panels.

Learn the process

5Textile

Tapestry of a unicorn within a fence on a flowering ground

Tapestry weaving

Pictures woven on a loom from coloured wefts, following a painted cartoon.

Learn the process

6Painting

Duccio’s Madonna and Child on a tooled gold ground

Gold-ground panel painting

Egg tempera on gessoed wood, with gold leaf laid on red bole and tooled to catch the light.

Learn the process