The latest experimentations for Gothic Illuminated Manuscript I and Gothic Illuminated Manuscript II were influenced by books of antiquity with artistic illustrations. Examples of gothic illuminated manuscripts included one of the great artists of Gothic Art, Simone Martini, an Italian painter whose works reflected the techniques of illuminated manuscript. This is where text is supplemented by the addition of decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations, as well as decorated with gold or silver. Simone’s art owes much to French manuscript illumination and ivory carving.
Below are two gothic illuminated manuscripts of Queen Elizabeth I known as the Virgin Queen (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603). After 1578, poets and writers took up the theme and turned it into an iconography that exalted Elizabeth.She was portrayed as married to her kingdom and subjects, under divine protection. In 1599, Elizabeth spoke of “all my husbands, my good people”.
In Asian traditions, illuminated manuscripts are generally more illustrative in nature, and from origins in manuscript book decoration also developed into single-sheet small paintings to be kept in albums, which are also called illuminated manuscript miniatures, as the Western equivalents in watercolor and other mediums are not.
END NOTES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Martini
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_(illuminated_manuscript)
