Colour as Character
MS 61: Bestiary, c.1200-1215
Bestiaries are encyclopaedias of animals, both real and mythical, that express the animals’ characteristics as a moral lesson or fable. They have a long tradition, and most medieval examples are based on the ancient Greek text Physiologus, written sometime between the second and fourth centuries (Hassig, 1990/91). However, medieval versions take this moralizing text and transform it into fables centring around human behaviour, partially by combining it with other, more contemporaneous, texts, and partially by linking the animals to biblical stories (Kauffmann, 2008). In doing so, medieval bestiaries translate this ancient format into a Christian parable, suitable for its medieval readers.
This manuscript is a prime example of the height of the bestiary’s power, where illustrations form the main focus. Martin Kauffman (2008) writes that, ‘The finest illumination of a secular text in the thirteenth century, especially popular in the first half, is to be found in the bestiary’.
This particular illustration focusses on lions, showing their different characteristics across three registers. In the lowest register, we see a lion seemingly bowing before a cockerel. This is illustrating the widely-held belief at the time that lions feared white cockerels – but here, the cockerel and the lion are shown as orange and blue.
In medieval painting, blue, in addition to representing the heavenly, ‘could also stand for the unusual and potentially dangerous’ (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge). Therefore, by making both animals blue, the illuminator is showing us that while we may fear the lion, the lion fears the cockerel, making them both fearsome creatures. Debra Hassig (1990/91), when examining the near-identical Ashmole Bestiary (MS Ashmole 1511, Bodleian Libraries, London), suggests that the facial expressions of the animals are also utilised to create humour; while the cockerel has a steadfast, defiant expression, the lion cowers, bowing his head and tucking his tail between his legs.
Medieval bestiaries are deliberately non-naturalistic and symbolic (Hassig, 1990/91), but it is important to recognise the artistic skill still displayed in them. Notice how two different shades of blue have been used to create the effect of shading (a technique popular during this period: Morgan, 2008), set off against white highlights. Colour may be used symbolically, but it is still applied with the techniques of naturalism.
References:
Kauffmann, M. (2008) ‘Illustration and Ornament’, Cambridge History of the Book Volume 2: 1100-1400; from the same volume, Morgan, N. (2008) ‘Illumination – pigments, drawing, gilding’; Colour and Meaning, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge website; from the same website, The Illuminators’ Palette; Hassig, D. (1990/91), ‘Beauty in the Beasts: A Study of Medieval Aesthetics, RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics; Henderson, A. C. (1982), ’Medieval Beasts and Modern Cages: The Making of Meaning in Fables and Bestiaries’, PMLA.