Artists

Artists

 1870, the work of more than one artist in the Pilgrims paintings was detected by an engraver named W.H. Hooper (Schulz, p. 16). Hooper was an engraver who cut the illustrations on wood for publication, in color, for the Chaucer Society. When he made the illustrations, he noticed that there were two groups of pilgrims drawn differently. One group of pilgrims had patches of grass beneath their feet, and the second group of pilgrims did not have any grass underneath their feet. On this account, researchers believe that there must have been three or four different artists. The skill level is different in the following portraits.

Artist 1: The portrait of Chaucer. The proportions of Chaucer in the picture are poor in comparison to the other pilgrims. However, the skill level is better than any other the other portraits. The upper portion of Chaucer is detailed, and the bottom portion is set to match the size of the horse. Chaucer's upper half is too big for the horse, but the artist might have run out of room to draw a bigger horse because the margin is on the left--with limited space. The skill level would have been greater, because the artist may have had an actual portrait of Chaucer to draw from, or the artist knows what Chaucer actually looked like. The pilgrims are fictional characters, so there is no portrait to copy from.

Artist 2: The portrait of the Monk, Nun's Priest, Second Nun, Canon's Yeoman, and Mancipile (approx. 2 3/4 to 3 7/8 inches). Artists 1 and 2 place patches of grass beneath the horses feel, but these are omitted by artist 3.

Artist 3: Includes all the remaining paintings made by a single artist, or by two working in similar styles (1 7/8 to 2 7/8, and the Knight 3 3/4) (Shultz). These portraits do not contain any grass beneath the horse. This suggests that there were two different artists.

 

The detail in the horses also show that there might have been additional artists. Of all the horses, Chaucer's horse is drawn the best. The next best horse is the Squire's horse. In addition, the squire's dress is eloquently designed. This could be a result of his station. According to Schulz, three of the paintings were traced. First the horse was traced, with a stylus, which is a pointed implement, of metal or bone, used for pricking and ruling a manuscript (Brown, 118). The stylus left a deep indentation in the vellum as an outline for the artist to follow. Next, the color was applied and the rider placed on top of the horse in freehand. The pressure from the stylus led researchers to identify whether the illustrations were drawn before binding took place.

Illustrations are important to book history, because it allows us to view depictions of people and clothing during history. The clothes drawn in these pictures represents the Middle Ages, from an illuminator who lived in that time. This is an authentic visual form, even though most of the pilgrims are fictional.