ILLUMINATION  TECHNIQUES

In Medieval times, the illumination was passing through many hands: the calligrapher, the designer, the colorist, the gilder, the illuminator etc.​

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Nowadays, the illuminator has to master all the stages.

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However, it is my parchment maker who prepares the skins with several liming baths. Once the parchment is in my hands, several steps of preparation remain to do. Parchment is a living matter, moving and curling according to temperature and moisture variations.

In the Middle Ages, parchments were kept in codex, the heavy weight of the books flattening them. Currently, to be displayed, the parchment has to be stretched on a flat surface to contain it and avoid spoiling the painting and the gold. I stick it on a PH-neutral, acid-free, solvent-free, wooden cardboard.

The parchment is a very special painting surface, slick and waterproof. Painting on it seems like painting on glass. (That’s why it is very difficult to paint faces or drapes superior to 2 or 3 cm; to smooth a gradient, you have to be extra cautious not to make a hole in the painting, digging into the lower layers).

The parchment skin is greasy. To help the painting stick on it, you need to clean it up, degreasing it with pumice stone powder.

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​The gilding is a delicate and time-consuming technique, especially with raised gilding.

For raised gilding, I apply by brushing several layers of gesso (plate to be gilded), according to a XIIth century recipe I manufacture with Meudon lead white, fish glue, Armenian bole and granulated sugar. Because of its thick texture, it is very difficult to paint small shapes or patterns, especially straight and smooth. When applying the gesso, the other difficulty is to avoid the formation of air bubbles which would threaten the regularity of the plate. Once dried, the gesso has to be gently burnished with a dogtooth agate burnisher, then warmed again by blowing through a paper tube to make it sticky to apply the gold leaf. At each layer, the gold has to be burnished to make it shinier.

A dozen layers are sometimes necessary …

For flat gilding, I use gum ammoniac, a tree resin I melt in water. I apply it by brushing on the surfaces I want to gild. When it is dried, I apply the gold leaf. Unlike raised gilding, flat gilding is matt.

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​Coloring is a subtle and demanding stage of the process because of the difficulty to use the pigments.

Painting remains on the surface and isn’t absorbed by the parchment, hence some cracks and chipping when the balance between pigments and water isn’t mastered by the illuminator.

This is one of the difficulties of this art…That’s why I created my own binder recipe to mix with the pigments and optimize their adhesion on the parchment. The medieval binding medium was made with egg yolk, Arabic gum and sometimes honey. For better adhesion, I composed my binder with ox gall, Arabic gum, honey and especially glycerin to soften the painting. Obviously, I had to understand, test and adapt the binder to adjust the dosage to the situation.

Each pigment being different due to their composition or their density, the quantity of binder has to be adapted. Sometimes, I have to settle or grind some colors. I only use natural pigments and never mix them together. In my workshop, I have approximately 85 pigments to enjoy the broadest chromatic range for stunning colors.

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​If I sometimes use drawing pens for some filigrees, the coloring is gently and patiently achieved by brush…