De coloribus: The Meanings of Color in Beatus Manuscripts Author(s): Elizabeth S. Bolman Reviewed work(s): Source: Gesta, Vol.

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De coloribus: The Meanings of Color in Beatus Manuscripts*

ELIZABETHS. BOLMAN
Temple University

Abstract This study is premised on the idea that human responses to color are historically and culturally specific. Illuminations of the Apocalypse in mid-tenth-throughearly twelfth-century Beatus manuscripts are analyzed for patterns of color use. These patterns suggest that color functioned differently than twentieth-centuryviewers might expect. Linksbetween the text of Revelation and the colors chosen by the illuminators may be evidence that the illuminations were used mnemonically. Although they appear to us as the antithesis of illusionism, some of the colors in these manuscriptswere chosen with reference to the natural world. Colors could carry symbolic meanings which varied according to context, and they could be tied to ideas about light and darkness, not only to hue. An aesthetic system which prized complex and systematized chromatic variety informed the painting of these illuminations. These and other patterns show that color provides a significant point of access for historical readings of Beatus illuminations.

When asked by FernandL6ger what single work of art he should see in New York, Meyer Schapiro chose a tenthcenturyilluminatedcopy of Beatus of Li6bana'sCommentarius in Apocalypsin, housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library (Color Pls. 1-2).' Schapirohas describedmozarabicpainting, of which Beatus manuscripts are a large part, as "an art of color."2Mireille Mentr6 has pointed out that most twentiethcentury viewers enthusiastically describe the colors in the illuminations of these manuscripts as beautiful, passionate viewers usually said and powerful, but thatnineteenth-century were ugly.3 As this dichotomy illustrates, responses to they color can change over time. Recent scholarshiphas also shown that people in different parts of the world, and at different times in history, have had varying ideas about the natureand meanings of color.4 Despite the salience of color as one of the determining characteristicsof Beatus manuscripts,it has not been the subject of rigorous historical analysis.5The purposeof this study is to demonstrate that a series of historically-specific ideas about color affected the choices made by the illuminators of Beatus manuscripts. My principal method is to examine repeating patterns of color use in these densely illustrated codices. Some of these patternswill help to test proposals by John Gage and Liz James concerning medieval ideas about color. In some ways Beatus manuscriptsprovide a more fruitful ground for analysis of color patternsthan the geographically disparate,and principallymonumentalexamples used by Gage and James. The density of illustration in each manu22

script, and the comparatively large number of codices from the same region and time period, provide ample material for study. The data derived from them permit me to propose additional motivations for the selection and reception of color, of therebybroadeningourunderstanding medieval ideas about color. Beatus manuscripts are named after the eighth-century Spanish monk Beatus of Li6bana,who assembled a commentary on the book of Revelation which became very popular. The text came to include a remarkably elaborate group of images.6 A complete set of paintings numbers one hundred and eight, of which sixty-eight illustrate the Apocalypse.' It is from the latter group that I draw my examples. Beatus arrangedhis Commentaryin sections, each beginning with several verses from the book of Revelation followed by the relevant exegesis. In the mid-tenth- through early twelfthconsideredin this study,the illuminations centurymanuscripts illustratethe biblical text and areplaced adjacentor very close to it, before the bulk of the exegesis. Most of these images are full-page, and depict the same basic subjects in what is often a startling array of colors. Illustrated copies of this work survive from the early tenth century on, and follow two main stemmata,or branches (Fig. 1). The second stemma has two major sub-branches(IIa and IIb). The divisions into these groupingswere made on the basis of textual and iconographical differences. While their basic assignment into three divisions has not been changed, the relationshipof elements within these recensions continues to be revised.8Analysis of these issues is outside the scope of this project. I will therefore use as a working model Peter Klein's stemma I, onto which I have grafted John Williams's recently published revision of stemma II.9 I studied eight manuscriptsfor patterns of color use."' All were copied and illuminatedin a small, relatively isolated area of northernSpain, between ca. 940 and 1109 C.E.Two are ascribed to stemma I, five to stemma IIa, and one is from stemma IIb. Their selection was informed by several factors, the most importantof which are their close temporaland geographicalrelationships. An attemptto build an understanding of historically specific ideas about color can most profitably be undertakenwithin restricted parameters.Because textual and iconographic elements tend to be transmitted through copying, a study of patterns of color use must consider this factoras well. Finally,the pragmaticrealityof access to manuscripts and to color reproductionsof them has also informed my selection."
GESTAXXXVIII/1 ? The InternationalCenter of Medieval Art 1999

Commentary Stemma 784 edition I, Stemma earlier8th c.A I, edition Stemma IIa

Key: Stemma I, 784 A2 San Milln Millin Escorial E N Navarre Fc Silos Fragment L Lorvdo Osma O C Corsini StemmaI, earlier8th c. A' Madrid 14-1 S San Sever Stemma IIa T M U V J D 1TuStemma T G Tu H R Pc Ar Fr Morgan Urgell Valladolid Facundus Silos IIb Tabara Girona Turin Las Huelgas Rylands Cardefia Arroyo Riosecco

Stemma IIb Fc A' M

A2

| | U V

R Pc Fr Ar

FIGURE 1. Stemmatafor Beatus manuscripts, after Klein, Der diltereBeatus-Kodex, II, 36 and Williams, Illustrated Beatus, I, 23, 26 (drawing: author).

Historical Perceptions and Definitions of Color Asking questions about color systems and selecting terminology presupposean awarenessof color as a category.Anthropologists and color theorists assert that humans perceive millions of variations in hue, but that not all cultures are interested in color or vision in the same way.12 Isaac Newton's discovery of the color spectrum, apparentin rainbows and in a ray of white light refracted through a prism onto a white surface, forms the basis of modern color systems. Twentiethcentury efforts to systematize color understandingand naming have resulted in the development of a three-dimensional model based on three concepts. These are hue, value and saturation, which are considered to be the constituent elements of any color. Hue refers to a color name, for example red. Value indicates the degree of white or black added to the hue, and is sometimes called tone or brightness. Saturationmeans the intensity or purity of a hue. The most common threedimensional color models position hue around the circumference of a globe, value along its central vertical axis, and

saturationradiating out horizontally from its center.'3 Interestingly, no consensus exists even today on which hues are primary.Newton, acknowledging that the color spectrumwas continuous, still identified seven color segments in it: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.14 The Munsell theory, which was the firstthree-dimensionalmodel for color, organizes hues in a circle divided by one hundred evenly spaced points, but selects from them five principal and five intermediate hues. The principal hues are red, yellow, green, Note that even though both systems are blue, and purple."5 based on the constant phenomenon of the colors of visible light on a white background, the identification of the more important or primary hues differs.16 Harold Conklin, in a critique of color systems, observes that other qualities affect our perception of color, including luminosity, transparency, texture, and lustrousness.'7 Color theories, therefore, even those based on scientific data, are historically constructed. Recent scholarship on medieval ideas about color by Gage and James helps to make sense of some of the patterns of color use identified in this study. Using texts and images, 23

Gage and James have shown that value, and not hue, was the principal organizing element of color systems in the middle ages.'8 The two primarypoles of this linear model were white and black, with red and possibly also purple understoodto be bright colors.19 The place of hues in this system was subordinate to value; thus a hue was understood to be inherently light or dark.Gage also observed that ideas aboutthe relationship of hues to each other and to value were often contradictory, and loosely conceptualized. Generally speaking, instead of thinking, as we do, of a circle of hues to which value and saturationare added, people in the middle ages imagined a somewhat flexible scale of light to dark, along which hues were arranged.20 Definitions of color words are historically no more stable than other ideas about color. Words such as red, which a twentieth-centuryreaderof English understandsin relationto a specific hue range, in other contexts might have entailed reference to additional hues and to other qualities, such as brightness. It has been shown that in antiquityand the middle ages, the word purpureus referredto hues which we identify as red and blue in addition to purple, and also connoted saturation and lustrousness.2 This lack of fixity with respect to hue boundaries can be unsettling to a modern audience, and should be kept in mind as one of the basic differences between medieval and modern ideas about color. For the sake of clarity, the English color words used in this article correspond to twentieth-century,western definitions. Hyphenated color words should be read with an emphasis on the second word;for example, orange-redmeans red which tends towards orange.
The Colors of the Text and Mnemonics

illuminationsfor color Examinationof Beatus manuscript use yields numerous patterns. One which we might expect to find, given standardmedieval artistic practice, is missing, and that is a close chromaticrelationship among manuscripts in the same stemma. Four other factors played a much greater role in color selection than copying: words in the text of Revelation, ideas about color and the naturalworld, symbolism, and an aesthetic appreciationof variety. The absence of evidence for habitual copying of color along with text and iconography can best be demonstratedby considering subjects which likely have no specific symbolic, natural,aesthetic, or textual reference point. Analysis of the backgroundbands in stemma IIa illuminations of the River of Life shows no similarity in hue between the Morgan(M, fol. 223: peach, yellow, purple-red,peach) and the Urgell manuscripts(U, fols. 198vThe 199: pale yellow, orange, pale purple, yellow, orange).22 Urgell and Facundus(J) manuscriptshave differentlycolored bands in the upper two-thirds of the folios, but are the same in the lower thirds (U, fols. 198v-199: pale yellow, orange, pale purple, yellow, orange; J, fol. 254: blue, yellow, pale purple, yellow, orange). These three manuscriptshave a rel24

atively close relationship to one another, textually and iconographically (see Fig. 1), but color does not bear out the connection. There is no similarity in the colors of the background bands between any of these stemma IIa manuscripts and the Silos Beatus, the last manuscript belonging to this stemma (D, fol. 209: gray-teal, gray-brown,orange-red,light brown). The absence of color repetition between the Urgell and Silos manuscripts is particularlynoteworthy in light of the fact that Klein has observed a close iconographic relationship between them.23These examples suggest that color was only rarely transmittedfrom the model, if at all, in stark contrast to features such as text and iconography. If routine copying did not account for color choice, what did? A close relationshipbetween the text of the Apocalypse and the iconographyin Beatus illuminationshas been demonA strated.24 survey focused on the two words alba and roseus revealed a correspondence in colors in about seventy-five percent of the examples studied, or eighty-five percent if we remove the Silos Beatus, the latest manuscriptconsidered.25 The book of Revelation includes both color words and words for substances and qualities which suggest color. An example of the latteris the word "bronze,"which could have been read for both hue and brightness (Revelation 1:15): "his feet were like burnished bronze." In many cases, the illuminators of these manuscripts followed the color word in the text, although this fact is not always immediately apparentto the modern eye. Two methods were used to render color words. One, filling in the area of the subject in a single, mostly solid block of color, is familiarto twentieth-centuryviewers. In the second, outlines were the site of the object's most important color. The convention of using a borderareaor stripe to carry the color designation of the whole may derive ultimatelyfrom ancient clothing, for example the clavus of the Roman toga praetexta.26 The way a toga was worn displayed these borders as fluid, colored lines moving across the center of the wearer's body, as well as aroundits periphery.The color of the border was the significant element, and not the overall color of the fabric. The practice of decoratingclothing with colored strips of fabric, whether on the border or elsewhere, continued in medieval liturgical dress. A consideration of depictions of clouds in five Beatus manuscriptsdemonstrates the importance of color words in the text for the illuminators.Revelation mentions four clouds, in 1:7, 10:1, 11:12, and 14:14. Uniquely, Revelation 14:14 specifies the color of the cloud, alba, meaning white or bright. In the Facundus, Escorial (E) and Girona (G) manuscripts, the clouds referredto in the first three passages are depicted, but only the clouds in the images to 14:14, the nubes alba, are white.27 The Morgan illustration of the nubes alba is yellow with white outlines. These clouds can be read as white because of the outlines. Yet two of the three other clouds in this manuscriptalso have white outlines, so the "white cloud" is not set apartfrom the other clouds by white pigment, as it is in J, E, and G.28The nubes alba in the Valladolid Beatus

(V) is white (fol. 148v). The clouds in the Silos Beatus are completely inconsistent with the text; only one is white, and it corresponds to Revelation 10:1, not 14:14.29 As this example shows, color choices can reiterate the link between text and illumination which is established by iconography.The connections among color, iconography and text play a surprisingrole in the pictorial narrative.In some instances color choices rupture narrative progression. Consider the Morgan illuminations of the Seven Angels with the Seven Last Plagues, Revelation 15:1-16:1. These angels are mentioned four times as a group. All four references are pictured, in three illuminations (fols. 18 lv, 183v, 185). Describing their first appearance, John says only that he sees the seven angels with seven plagues in the sky (Revelation 15:1). In the illumination accompanying this text the angels are shown dressed in mantles and tunics in a range of colors (fol. 181 Color P1. 1, a). When John next mentions them, he delv; scribes their dress, saying that they wear clean, shining linen and have golden girdles upon their breasts (Revelation 15:6; fol. 183v; Color P1l.1, b).30 Two features in the depiction of this line are unique in the sequence of illuminations of plague-bearing angels: white outlines around all of the angels' clothes, and golden bands across their mantles. This is the only instance of completely white outlining of any figure in the MorganBeatus.31 Within the outlines, none of the color combinations used in their dress in the angels' first appearance is duplicated.Folio 183v representsthe second and third textual references to the angels as a group (Revelation 15:67). In the final appearanceof all seven, the text indicates nothing about their apparel, and once again, as in their first appearance, the illuminator has shown the angels without golden girdles or white outlines (Revelation 16:1; fol. 185). This time, two of the seven color combinations in their mantles and tunics repeat those in their second appearance. Color choices for the dress of the main protagonists of these scenes in the densely illustratedMorgan manuscriptare not consistent from image to image. They do not assist the viewer in identifying sequential moments in time, in the manner of modern cartoon strips, but disrupt the narrative flow and call attention to specific words in the text. None of the words signaled by the gold and white-colored pigments is an abstract color word. One is a substance word, gold, and the other two-mundum splendidum, meaning clean and bright, spotless, or shining-are qualities which are renderedin the Morgan manuscript with white pigment. Brightness is depicted with white, and this choice correspondswith the color most often used for sources of light, as will be demonstrated below. If, in some instances, a clear link exists between specific words in the text (whether abstractcolor words or words for substances and qualities) and the colors of the illuminations, there is also a substantial number of instances in which the link is unclear, or absent. Revelation 7:9 describes a multitude of people in white (alba) robes, holding palm branches.

In the Morgan manuscript(fols. 117v-118), at the beginning of stemma IIa, the palm-bearingfigures are dressed in multicolored robes which include only a few white lines, and no completely white outlines. In the Facundus Beatus, another use of alba in the text is visually highlighted in the Opening of the Fifth Seal (Revelation 6:11), in which the figures are all outlined in white or gold, implying a reference to the brightness aspect of alba (fol. 106). In the Silos Beatus, which is at the very end of stemma IIa, no white appearsin this scene (fols. 112v-113). These examples demonstratetwo points. First, the colors in the illuminations often relate specifically to words in the text, but do not always do so. Second, links between image and text vary by manuscript.In other words, in most cases the derivation seems to be illumination from text, and not illumination from illumination.Choices seem to have been made, perhaps by the illuminator or scribe, independently of the pictorial model used. This differs from our understandingof standard medieval practice, according to which text and imagery were copied with fidelity from models. The frequent correlation of text and painted colors continues to appear in Beatus manuscriptsinto the eleventh century, suggesting that there was an enduring motivation for these choices. The late eleventh- to early twelfth-century Silos Beatus, however, is singularly free of color links between text and illumination.32 What could have motivated illuminators to disable narrative continuity by using white for the clothing of plaguebearing angels (outlines in M, solid white in G), and adding golden girdles only once? A modern viewer might expect that the single textual reference to details of dress would have been applied by the artist consistently to every appearanceof the figures. It has been suggested that monks and nuns in northernSpainmemorizedthe Apocalypse text.33 Beatus wrote in his commentarythat the Apocalypse was the key to all of the Bible's books, thus indicating its importance in early medieval Spain.34 Consideragain the MorganBeatus'splaguebearing angels. Describing their first appearance(Revelation 15:1; fol. 181v; Color P1. 1, a), John says that he sees seven angels with seven plagues in the sky. In verse 6, he states that they are wearing their clean, shining linen and gold girdles. In the next line, verse 7, the angels are mentioned again, being given the bowls of wrath. Verses 6 and 7 are combined on folio 183v (Color P1. 1, b). Two lines later (Revelation 16:1), John again refers to the angels, saying only that they are addressed by God (fol. 185). We have here a surprisinglydense sequence of images for a short passage. Visually, the narrative is broken up by color changes. The descriptive details unique to one instance in the text are included only once in these illuminations, on folio 183v. It seems plausible that this sequence of images could have aided a readerintent on memorizing the correspondingtext. The various classical and medieval texts on mnemonic techniques known to us use visual images to assist memorizaWhile this featureof the treatisesmight seem to support tion.35
25

the hypothesis of a mnemonic function for color patterns in Beatus manuscripts,it also unsettles the hypothesis because these texts stress that each person must create a personal visual memory aid. Yet mnemonicpracticemay not always have conformed to these rules. A recent study of the schematic images accompanyingseveral early versions of Cassiodorus's Institutiones suggests just such a mnemonic function for them.36In this case the images are not at all as complete or literal in their illustration of the text as they are in Beatus manuscripts.It seems plausible that the Beatus illuminations may have been ready-made mnemonic images, sometimes incorporatingparallels to verbal signs for color.
Representations of the Natural World

Mentr6 and Klein have remarkedthat the colors chosen by the illuminators of Beatus manuscriptshave no relationship to the naturalworld.37Given the brightly colored bands in their backgrounds, and the appearanceof such details as blue horses and numerous multi-colored, fantastical beasts,38 this reaction is understandable.Furthermore,the painters of these illuminations made no effort to show any of their subjects as three-dimensional objects definedby light and shadow. There is no illusionistic space in these paintings. Nonetheless, the naturalworld does seem to have played an important role in the color choices of Beatus manuscriptilluminators, although it is ideas about nature which informed them, not unmediatednatureitself. Just as the sense we make of color is constructed, so is the sense we make of nature.In the manuscripts it is possible to find regular patternsof color choices in depictions of light and of darkness, and also for certain physical substances such as blood and hail. The illuminations of Beatus manuscriptsare full of stars, fire, and lightning. Sources of light are consistently rendered with white and red, and less often with yellow and orange.39 Representations of darkness are less plentiful, but they do exist. When produced by smoke, darkness is commonly depicted with blue lines.40 The word niger, meaning both black and dark, appearstwice in the Apocalypse text, and it is rendered with black or brown pigments in eight of the nine examples studied.41 These choices show that hues, even at their most pure and saturated,were understood as having a value aspect. On the basis of this evidence, we can readily hypothesize a value scale in which white, red, yellow, and orange made up the light end. Less securely, we can suggest that black, brown, and blue made up the dark end. The colors used to depict darkness in the illustration of Revelation 8:12 show a more complicatedpattern."The fourth angel blew his trumpet,and a thirdof the sun was struck, and a third of the stars, and a third of the moon, so that a third of their light was darkened; a third of the day was kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night."In the Morgan and Escorial manuscripts,the purple-blue and black thirds of the sun and the moon read clearly as darkness, consistent with 26

the colors used to renderthe word niger (the remaining twothirds is painted white: M fol. 138v, E fol. 94v). This color choice provides more evidence that blue and black were at the dark end of the value scale, and suggests that purple may have been at that end as well. The white two-thirds is understandable, as white was the color most commonly used to render light. The illuminator of the Silos manuscript, however, does not seem to have used colors representingextremes of light and darkness, but rather one color, white, which is most often used for light, and a color which is darker than white, in this case orange-red, according to a system which organizes colors on a value scale to convey the darkeningof light. The Girona manuscript probably illustrates a similar tendency, following which pale purple was chosen for the dark third because it is darkerthan orange-red, the color of the light two-thirds. Pale purple may have been a median color, as it does not consistently appear in the rendering of The stars in illuminations of sources of light and darkness.42 Revelation 8:12 correspondirregularlywith the text. In some cases a thirdof each star seems to have been darkened,in others a thirdof the group of stars,43 in the Morganand Silos and manuscriptsthere is no suggestion of darkeningat all. Light and darkness are not shown illusionistically, but throughthe mediation of medieval ideas about the relationship between hue and value. Colors that we read as hues were chosen to representvalue, that is to say light and darkness. Hail, blood, skin, water, and precious metals are also regularly depicted with colors that relate to the natural world. Colors used for skin are consistently white, tan, or peach (Color Pls. 1-2).44 Gold is renderedwith actual gold, or with one or more of the colors used to depict light.45Lambs are usually white (Color P1. 1, a). Blood is bright or darkred, or, Hail is almost always white.47 exceptionally, only partlyred.46 Rivers and oceans are usually blue; less frequently they are designatedby the off-white of unpaintedparchment,with blue fish and blue outlines.48 The only dramatic deviation from this patternis the red color of the Red Sea in paintings of the mappa mundi, which were often included in these codices.49 The key to the constant use of the same colors for fire and water may derive from the colors traditionally assigned to the four elements.50Jerome and Isidore agree that ether, or fire, is red, and that water is purple.5' Fire is also a light source, and the use of red and orange-red to depict it is consistent with the colors for light discussed above. The hue which we identify as blue probablybelonged within the range for purple. It is harder to explain the colors used for the elements of air and earth. Jerome described air as blue, and Isidore said it is white.52 Given the colored background bands in many Beatus manuscripts, it is hard to imagine where or how air could be represented.Trees and mountains present much less regularity.While many are blue or purple, multiple colors were used. The element earth,which would include mountains, was described as byssus (flax) by Jerome.53 but Isidore describedthe element of earthas dark,54 the colors

of mountains in Beatus manuscriptsseem almost as varied as palette ranges would permit, and they are not limited to the hues used to render darkness. The motivation for choosing varying colors for mountains and trees, but only red for blood is not easily explicable in naturalterms, unless it is because blood is a relatively constant color, while trees and the flora on mountains change color with seasons, geographical location, availability of water, and quality of light. The patterns of colors used for sources of light and of darkness in these illuminations show that what we define as hues, for example red, included value-a quality of light or darkness-in early medieval Spain. Since red conveyed light, it was a bright color, second only to white, and brighterthan yellow. These results correspond to Gage's characterization of the medieval color system as one which organized hues in terms of value. By virtue of the narrowness of its temporal and geographical scope, the present study permits a more precise demonstrationof the relationship of hues to each other on a value scale than was possible in the broader studies of Gage and James.I have found connections between statements about at least two of the four elements (fire and water) and the colors used to representthem. In addition, red was constantly used for blood, and white for hail. These patterns indicate that ideas about the natural world and the observable colors of some things in it did play a role in determining the colors of Beatus manuscriptilluminations, non-illusionistic though they may be.
Color Symbolism

All three of the hues used in Beatus manuscriptilluminations to representdarkness appearconsistently in one other context: they depict the devil and Hades, who is the personification of hell. Devils in all but one of the Beatus manuscripts studied are rendered in blue, black, or brown.55The personificationof Hades appearsas blue or brown, or a combination of both.56This raises the interesting possibility that what we tend to read as hues-blue, brown, and black-functioned here as darkness, and that they occupied an area on the value scale that carried a negative symbolic meaning.57 Except for sources of light and darkness and natural objects, as discussed above, no other limited group of hues is consistently used for any other subject matter, and ascertaining the symbolic potential of colors is surprisingly difficult. The colors used to depict darkness and the devil also appear in representationsof sacred subjects, such as angels and God, as one example from the FacundusBeatus demonstrates.The WomanClothed with the Sun (fol. 187) shows God enthroned in the upper right, in a robe of the same black color with red outlines as the devil at the lower right in the same scene. Thus no color always had fixed symbolic significance, and only one, white, usually did.58 White appears almost exclusively in positive symbolic contexts in Beatus manuscripts,most commonly in the lamb

of God (Color P1. 1, a). Of twenty-six lambs depicted in the manuscripts studied, twenty-one are white, with brown and rarely also red outlines, and five are various shades of gray.59 All but one of these non-white examples are in the Silos Beatus. The symbolic consistency of white, and the symbolic inconsistency of other colors, is a characteristicof medieval texts as well. In texts, white is often linked to a symbolic cluster including brightness,purity,sanctity,cleanliness, chastity, and the lamb of God.60 Even if white was used in the illuminations for its value aspect-as brightness or light-it is unusual that only this one of the four hues used to render light was chosen for the lamb, and only rarely were lambs outlined in red. This is in contrast to the coloration of the devil, for whom all of the three hues used to renderdarkness were employed. When colors function symbolically in Beatus manuscripts their meaning depends on context, and, excepting the case of white, symbolism does not entail a common association with a fixed meaning.61The evidence from the illuminations corresponds to Beatus's discussion of this subject in his commentary.62 the exegesis of the rosy-colored (roseus) In horse of Revelation 6:4, Beatus explains that heretics, who "shed innocent blood," and the devil, with whom they are in league, sit upon this horse.63The horse is roseus because of the blood they shed. The author goes on to explain that the rosy horse of Zachariah 1:8 has a very different meaning. It symbolizes the blood of martyrs who have sacrificed themselves. Both horses are red with blood, but one horse's color In symbolizes evil killing, and the other sacred martyrdom.64 this case colors are discussed simply as hues, without the suggestion of light or darkness.Color can work symbolically as a value (darkness) or as a hue (roseus), but its meaning depends on context. Because of this variability, more color symbolism may have been intended in these illuminations than can be retrieved by us.
Varietas

An appreciation for variety, with or without color, has been recognized as a characteristicof late antique poetry by Michael Roberts,andof late antiquesculptureby Beat Brenk.65 James has described color variation as an intentional practice of Byzantine mosaicists when they were depicting a common scene.66 Two treatises on the technical manufactureof pigments also include opinions about color variety. Eraclius, the author of the ca. eleventh-century De coloribus et artibus Romanorum,states that mixing colors makes more beautiful varieties.67Written in the early twelfth century,68Theophilus's De diversis artibus gives us a richerunderstandingof the importance of varietas. The sanctuaryof the temple of holy wisdom, for Theophilus, is a place "filled with a variety of all kinds of diverse colours with the usefulness and nature of each one set forth."69 the case of varietas, it does not matter In if these colors were principally thought of as hues or as areas
27

Type 1: linear mirroredrepetition or: Type 2: mirroredrepetition along

ABC CBA A B

a diagonalgrid

BX

Type 3: linear (horizontal or vertical) ABABABABABAB repetition of a pattern: or: or: ABCBABCBABCBA ACBAC BACBA CBACB ABCDEFG HABCDEF AB DC CD BA

Type 4: regularly colored pairs in two zones: Type 5: linear patternreversed in lower zone: Type 6: like elements framing a regular pattern: Type 7: like elements framing an irregularpattern:

A BCDCBCDC A A BCDEFGHI A

FIGURE 2. Principles of varietas in Beatus manuscripts.

on a value scale. The point is their difference and their profusion. This common appreciation for diversity manifested itself with color in a specific way in northernSpain. Chromaticvariety is an obvious characteristicof Beatus manuscriptilluminations. Variety exists in the sheer number of colors used.70The way in which these many colors are disposed also varies, so we are looking at a taste not simply for a single system of diversity, but for varieties of variety. Pattern and color work together. The borders of most of the illuminationsstudied are intricatelypatternedwith colors, and each figure is painted with a dense build-up of colors, often between seven and nine hues on a single figure (Color Pls. 1, a; 2, a). In their density of polychromy, the figures and borders in these manuscripts contrast with the single-hued backgrounds in the manuscripts of stemma I, and the wide, solidly-colored bands that form the backgrounds in manuscripts of stemma II. The structuringof varietas can range from simple to extremely complex. At its most basic, varietas in Beatus manuscripts consists of the application of a profusion of colors in each illumination. This effect can be achieved in a manuscript which includes only about ten colors, like the Escorial Beatus of stemma I, by painting a multi-colored, patterned border;a single backgroundcolor (usually a bright, saturated yellow); and three or four blocks or areas of color in each figure, over which a different color, and black or white, is added in the form of short lines or dots. The build-up of colors on a single figure and the use of patterned, colored 28

borders are apparentin several stemma I manuscripts, but they lack the feature which makes the stemmaII manuscripts so unusual. In illuminations of both branches of stemma II, the colored and patternedborder contrasts with solidly colored background bands,upon which are addednumeroussmall figures with densely built-up colors.7"Banding can be seen in all of the stemma II manuscriptsstudied, and it increases chromatic variety considerably. Carefullystructured patternsof like colors addfurthervarieties of variety to Beatus manuscriptilluminations(Fig. 2).72 These patternsoperatewith identical subjects (e.g., angels) or groups of like units (e.g., wings, mantles, halos). A simple form of such organized variety consists of the linear mirrored repetitionof a pairor pairedgroupsof figures(Type 1 in Fig. 2). Forexample, in the upperleft zone of the magnificent,doublefolio rendering of the Last Judgment in the Morgan Beatus (Color P1. 2, b), the two angels flanking Christ are mirror images of each other in form and in color (fol. 219v). A slightly more complicated version of organized varietas is mirroredrepetition along a diagonal grid. Linear repetition of a patternis also used; the patternmay be very simple or complex. In the scene of the Millennial Judges and the Souls of the Martyrsin the MorganBeatus (fol. 214), the birds in the lower section of the illuminationrepresentthe martyrs' souls (Fig. 3; Color Pl. 2, a). They are colored in pairs, in a repeating ABC patternwhich works vertically and also from left to right. The sequence of colors is the same throughout: white, correspondingto A in Figure 3, red (B), and ocher (C). The initial color of each set of three varies in a predictable manner.The first row, at the far left, from top to bottom, begins the patternwith A, B and C. The second row startswith C, and then immediately follows with A and B. The third again picks up the last color at the bottom of the preceding row, and continues in the same order. A more complex variation,Type 4, regularlycolors two different elements in adjacent figures. For example, in the Morgan's Plague-Bearing Angels (fol. 183v; Color Pl. 1, b), each angel's halo is the same color as the tunic of the angel to its right. Further,a sequential ordering of colors in an upper zone may be repeatedin reverse, in a lower zone. Elements in one color or set of colors frame two types of sequences: colored colors, andcompletely irregularly regularlyalternating patterns.Often, several types of color repetitionsarecombined in a single illumination, always in addition to the standard profusion of variety which is made up of border,background bands, and dense build-up of figural color. It is common for an otherwise completely regularpattern to have an irregular element, usually in the middle or at the end when the pattern is read from left to right. Figure 4 is a schematic tracingof the Vision of the Lamb in the Silos Beatus (fol. 86v).73In the four angels at the top of this miniature, simple mirroredrepetition is varied by alternating the colors of the tunics and mantles of the larger pair, and of the halos and mantles of the middle, bust-length

(I'Lr
B B

rAtC
B

TC
c c

rB

A.

ir47Br
eg

FIGURE 3. Varietas in M (Morgan Beatus), fol. 214, the Millennial Judges and the Souls of the Martyrs (drawing: author).

pair, and also by disrupting the otherwise precise schema by painting two halos yellow (top left and middle right) while choosing two colors (orange-red and olive-green), not one, for the halos of the angels at the top right and middle left. The largercircle includes repetitionswithin a regularschema. The jagged semi-circle of angels at the bottom of the page shows three examples of linear repetition,the second of which shifts about halfway through the sequence. The colored elements are:wings, EABAEABA (olive-green, teal-green,yellow, tealgreen; there is a doubled A at the far right); halos, regularly BDADB (yellow, orange-red,teal-green, orange-red,yellow) and then EADBEAD (olive-green, teal-green, orange-red,yellow); and finally dress, in an ACEBACEB sequence. The illuminators of Beatus manuscripts did not copy these complex systems of variety exactly from their models, and they may have consciously elaboratedor changed them. An examination of the birds shown in the images of the Opening of the

Fifth Seal in three manuscriptsof stemma IIa reveals the use of three different types of varietas (Fig. 5).74 The use of more organized systems of varietas seems to have increased dramatically over time. A study of the Morgan manuscript,painted around 950 c.E., for carefully structured varietas yielded five reasonably clear examples.75The examination of color reproductionsof most of the Facundus Beatus (1047 c.E.) indicated seven clear instances.76Twentyone examples of the types of varietas described above can be seen in the Silos Beatus (1109 C.E.).77 In Beatus manuscript illuminations, varietas seems to have been principally an aesthetic system.78In the Morgan Beatus, however, its absence also may have functioned symand bolically. In the profusionof structured contrastingvariety in the Morgan Beatus, most angelic and evil beings are renderedin like fashion. For example, the Antichriststormingthe faithful, in the middle zone of folio 215v, and the evil serpent 29

M, fol. 109

E
E A
A

AAAAAA BBBBB CCCCC BCBAB AA BB AA AAAAA AAAA AAAAA AA BB AA

BBBB AAAAA CCCCC BABA BBBB AAAA BBBB BBBB BBBB BBBB

c B
E

J, fol. 138v

C~C

D, fol. 105v
c
c,

C
BBE B

FIGURE 5. Varietas in stemma Ha manuscripts, birds in the Opening of the Fifth Seal.

E EE

/
C A' C E B E r A

FIGURE4. Varietas in D (Silos Beatus), fol. 86v, the Vision of the Lamb (drawing. author).

beasts. As noted above, evil and angelic beings, true believers and those worshippingfalsely are all renderedwith varied colors. Yet when the devil appears unmasked, and is recognized for himself, this coloristic diversity vanishes.79Similarly,when the heretics and worshippersof the beast are finally seen as damnedon their day of judgment, they standin monochromatic garb in the upper two zones at the far right of a double-folio illumination80(fols. 219v-220; Color P1. 2, b). The absence of chromatic varietas in their clothing singles them out from the throngs of the saved, who are all dressed in multi-colored clothing on the left folio.8s Inferences may be drawn from the absence of variety. The rupturingof a color system acts as a highlighting device. As with color symbolism in general, the absence of variety signals no single, uniform meaning. Like the color red, its meaning depends on context. Aesthetic preferences appearto add meaning to these illuminations.Chromaticvarietas is created in all of the Beatus manuscriptsI have studied. Thus far, I have noted its apparently meaningful absence only in the Morgan Beatus.82
Conclusion

and the angels of the Lord in the scene of the WomanClothed with the Sun (fols. 152v-153), are all depicted in a similarly diverse range of colors in the standarddense build-up. In four cases, however, the usual density of figuralcolor is strikingly absent: the devil, the lamb of God (Color P1. 1, a), the damned and the dead (Color P1. 2, b). Each of these subjects is renderedin a single, solid block of color, and outlined or detailed with one additional color. Comparedto the usual appearanceof figures with numerousand often carefully patterned colors, these figures stand out. This rare,but regularabsence of varietas must be meaningful, even though these unadornedsubjects cannot share a unified or even a related symbolism. One theme of Beatus's commentary is heresy, and he is particularlyconcerned with the difficulty of distinguishing between true believers and heretics claiming to be Christians.In the Apocalypse, people are tricked into following false prophets and worshipping 30

John Gage'sbroadlyconceived demonstrationof the historically and culturallyspecific natureof color and Liz James's more focussed study of Byzantine ideas about color make it absolutely clear that art historians must reconstruct historical ideas about color, and not use post-Newtonian models in an attemptto understandoriginal intention and meaning. This analysis of Beatus manuscriptsprovides furtherevidence that hue was generally subordinate to value. The occasional inconsistencies in the patterns observed also underline Gage's belief that ideas about hue boundaries,and about the relationship between hue and value, were flexible. This may partially explain why the illuminators'working practice did not entail fixed rules with regard to the copying of colors. This study has identified four motivations for the uses of color observed in these manuscripts.Colors may have evoked

words or passages in the accompanying Apocalypse text, perhaps for a mnemonic purpose. A correlation between color words in the text and colors in the illuminations is apparent, although uneven, in most of the tenth- and eleventh-century manuscripts studied, but is singularly lacking in the Silos Beatus. This suggests that a functional shift took place sometime before the end of the eleventh century. While never attempting the illusionistic recreationof the world aroundthem, the painters did sometimes choose colors related to the natural world. Colors could have been read as manifestations of light or darkness and also as hues, within an organizational system which prioritized the former over the latter. Both values and hues could have functioned symbolically, although symbolic meaning was never absolutely fixed to one color or range of colors, but was dependent on context. An aesthetic appreciationof polychromatic diversity, and varieties of variety, is apparentin these illuminations, and may be related to a similar interest expressed in late antique literature and sculpture, and in Byzantine painting and mosaic. Evidence from the Morgan, Facundus, and Silos manuscriptsindicates varietas increasedover that instances of elaboratelystructured time. In the Morgan manuscript, the occasional absence of varietas may also have worked as a highlighter, conveying meaning dependent, once again, on context. My hope is that this preliminary study may present a method for analyzing chromaticdata from any group of like manuscriptsdatable to a limited time period.

2. 3.

M. Schapiro, "From Mozarabic to Romanesque at Silos," in Romanesque Art: Selected Papers (New York, 1977), I, 35. M. Mentre, "L'Utilisationdes couleurs dans la miniaturemozarabe,"in Espafia entre el Mediterraneoy el Atlantico (Actas del XXIII Congreso Internacionalde Historia del Arte, Granada, 1973) (Granada, 1976), I, 417. This work would not have been possible without the importantcontributions of John Gage: Color and Culture: Practice and Meaningfrom Antiquity to Abstraction (Boston, 1993); "Colour in Western Art: An Issue?" AB, LXXII (1990), 518-541; "Colour in History: Relative and Absolute,"AH, I (1978) 104-130; "Locus Classicus of Colour Theory: The Fortunesof Apelles,"JWCI,XLIV (1981), 1-26. See also L. James, Light and Colour in ByzantineArt (Oxford, 1996); V. Bruno, Form and Color in Greek Painting (New York, 1972); C. Rowe, "Conceptions of Colour and Colour Symbolism in the Ancient World,"The Realms of 1972 (Leiden, 1974), 327-364; and P. Dronke, Colour:Eranos Yearbook "Traditionand Innovationin Medieval WesternColour-Imagery," ibid., 51-107. Some scholars have questioned the sources of influence on the colors, and othershave discussed theirmaterialaspects, identifiedpaletteranges, or discussed their optical and psychological effects. For completely or primarilyformal analyses, see G. G. King, "Divagations on the Beatus," Art Studies: Medieval, Renaissance and Modern, VIII (1930), 3-58; Schapiro, "FromMozarabic to Romanesque,"28-101, esp. 33-35. For brief remarkson sources of influence see J. Williams, The Illustrated Beatus. A Corpusof Illustrations of the Commentaryon the Apocalypse (London, 1994), I, 64, 73; King, "Divagations,"18; J. Pijoin, Arte bdrbaro y preromdnico desde el siglo IV hasta el aifo 1000 (Summa artis: Historia general del arte, VIII) (Madrid, 1942), 502; and J. Beckwith, "Islamic Influences on the Beatus Apocalypse Manuscripts,"in Actas del Simposio para el Estudio de los C'dices del "Commentario al Apocalypsis" de Beato de Lie'bana(Madrid, 1980), II, 60. For material considerations,see: Williams, IllustratedBeatus, I, 64, 73; and P. Klein, Der iltere Beatus-Kodex Vitr.14-1 der Biblioteca Nacional zu Madrid: Studien zur Beatus Illustration und der spanischen Buchmalerei des 10. Jahrhunderts(Studien zur Kunstgeschichte, VIII) (Hildesheim, 1976), 238-240. For descriptions of hues by manuscriptand identification of links between manuscripts, see W. Neuss, Die Apokalypse des HI. Johannes in der altspanischen und altchristlichen Bibel-Illustration (Minster in Westfalen, 1931), 275; Klein, Altere Beatus-Kodex, 238240, 243-286; and Williams, Illustrated Beatus, I, 73, 95-96. Almost all of these studies consider color an incident of style, or view it through a system of color organizationwhich was first developed in the seventeenth century.Mentr6,O. K. Werckmeisterand King are the only three, to my knowledge, to have considered some historical aspects of color, apartfrom the subject of the origins of pigments. Mentr6'sanalyses of color systems in Beatus manuscriptsare interesting, as she treats color as a factor capable of producing meaning in Beatus manuscriptilluminations. She also acknowledges that the observationand appreciationof colors are affected by many factors. Unfortunately, she still analyzes color combinations in modern terms (a hue-based system with complementary,contrastingand close colors), and seems to assume that the
illuminators of Beatus manuscripts were using the same system. Gage emphatically demonstrates the post-medieval genesis of this system: Color and Culture, 173. Mentr6, Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Spain, trans. J. Wakelyn (London, 1996), 139-141, 145-148, 161-176, 195-208; "Espace et Couleurs dans les Beatus du Xbme sibcle," CSMC, XIV (1983), 179-196; "Originalit6 des couleurs et des perspectives dans les representations Mozarabes," Dossiers de I'Arche~ologie, XIV (1976), 70; and "L'Utilisation des couleurs," 417-418. In "Das Bild zur Liste der Bistimer Spaniens im Codex Aemilianensis," O. K. Werckmeister has identified a symbolic, arithmetically-based rationale for the choice and frequency of colors in an illumination in a late tenth-century

4.

5.

NOTES * This topic was the subject of my M.A. thesis, which was completed at Bryn Mawr College in 1992 under the supervision of Dale Kinney. Preliminarypresentationsof the results were made at the 1993 Patristic Medieval and Renaissance Conference at Villanova University, and at the Twenty-NinthInternationalCongress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo in 1994. I am greatly indebted to Kinney, Barbara Kellum, Irving Lavin, James O'Donnell, and John Williams for their invaluable assistance on this project. Special thanks are also due to Gregor Kalas for many stimulatingconversations.AnnemarieWeyl Carrand an anonymous readerprovided me with essential criticism of an earlier version of this article, for which I am very grateful. I have received friendly and competent assistance from many librarians,especially Charles Burke, Eileen Markson, MarshallJohnston, and Carol Vassallo of Bryn Mawr College, Alan Morisson of the University of Pennsylvania,Matt Roper of the University of Pittsburgh, Inge Dupont and Katherine Reagan of the Pierpont Morgan Library, and the staff of the British Library Students' Reading Room. My thanks to J. M. Backhouse, Curatorof Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library, for her permission to study Add. MS 11695, and to William Voelkle and Roger Wieck, Curator and Assistant Curatorof Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at the Pierpont Morgan Library, for their permission to study M644. I have benefitted from Lynn Fotheringham'spainstaking and excellent Latin translations. H. Epstein, "MeyerSchapiro:'A Passion to Know and to Make Known,'" Art News (May 1983), 61.

1.

31

Spanish manuscript(MadriderMitteilungen, IX [1968], 418-423). My work neither contradicts nor depends on Werckmeister'sconclusions, but could coexist readily with them. Unfortunately,difficultyin deciding which colors to count and how to identify them (e.g., outline colors, and value or hue) has prevented me from applying Werckmeister'smethod. King tantalizingly alludes to the influence of Islamic numerological color theory in a few unspecified manuscripts,which she says were copShe ied by "Sarracinus." does not cite any sources or develop this point; "Divagations," 18. Modern systems of organizing color which prioritize hue over value and saturation,and which arrangehues on a wheel have their origins in the 1600s; Gage, Color and Culture, 153-154. Formalanalyses which do not take account of color's historical aspects assume that aesthetic reactions remain constant over time, and are independent of other factors, for example, symbolism and an awareness of cost. 6. Williams, Illustrated Beatus, I, 7. 7. Ibid., I, 31. A 8. K. B. Steinhauser,TheApocalypse Commentaryof Tyconius: History of Its Reception and Influence (Frankfurtam Main, 1987), 158-161; Williams, Illustrated Beatus, I, 20-26. 9. Williams, Illustrated Beatus, I, 23, 26. 10. They are: New YorkCity, The PierpontMorgan Library,MS M644 (M in Fig. 1); Girona, Museu de la Catedral, MS 7 (G); Valladolid, Biblioteca de la Universidad, MS 433 (V); Seu d'Urgell, Museu Diocesa, MS 501 (U); El Escorial, Biblioteca del Monasterio, Cod. &.II.5 (E); Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS Vitrina 14-1 (olim B.31) (J); Burgo de Osma, Archivo de la Catedral, MS 1 (0); London, British Library, Add. MS 11695 (D). 11. Only M and D have been studied in person. Since I do not take into account small variations in color, some use of color facsimiles seemed acceptable. 12. A. Kornerupand J. H. Wanscher,MethuenHandbookof Colour, 3rd ed. (New York, 1984), 12. Gage, "Colour in Western Art," 518. M. Pastoureau, "Introduction,"The Color Compendium, ed. A. Hope and M. Walch (New York, 1990), xvi. 13. Munsell Color Company,TheMunsell Book of Color (Baltimore, 1929), 12-13. Kornerupand Wanscher,Handbook, 12. 14. H. C. Conklin, "Color Categorization,"review of Basic Color Terms: Their Universalityand Evolution, by B. Berlin and P. Kay, in American Anthropologist, LXXV (1973), 939. "Colour," New Encyclopaedia Britannica: Macropaedia, 15th ed. (Chicago, 1990), II, 4, 595. 15. Munsell Book of Color, 13. 16. Some of this confusion and imprecision may stem from the fact that two very different, yet overlapping physical phenomena are involved. One depends on the interactions of colored light and the other on the mixing of material colors. Different rules govern these two realms. Conklin, "Color Categorization,"934-935. 17. Ibid., 933. 18. Gage, Color and Culture, 70; James, Light and Colour, 90. 19. Gage, "Colour in History," 108-110. 20. Gage, Color and Culture, 70. 21. Gage, "Colour in History,"109-110, and M. Reinhold, History ofPurple as a Status Symbol in Antiquity(Collection Latomus, CXVI) (Brussels, 1970), 8 n. 1.

24. Williams, IllustratedBeatus, 32-34; Mentr6,IlluminatedManuscripts, 142-143. 25. I have used the text of Revelation in Beatus's commentary,as edited by Romero (n. 62). While alba is used in Revelation fifteen times (1:14, 2:17, 3:4, 3:5, 3:18, 4:4, 6:11, 7:9, 7:13, 7:14, 14:14, 19:11, 19:14 [twice], 20:11), not all of these passages are illustrated.To complicate matters further, I have not found color reproductions of all of these illustrations. Two depictions of Revelation 1:14 illustrate white hair (J, fol. 46, E, fol. 3v), and two do not (M, fol. 27, G, fols. 36v-37). One rendering of Revelation 4:4 refers to the color word (G, fol. 107), and two do not (M, fol. 83, J, fol. 116v). The white horse of Revelation 6:2 is shown white in G, fol. 126, J, fol. 135r, and O (no folio numberavailable). The white robes of the souls under the altar are illustrated with white twice (U, fol. 106, with many but not all white lines; J, fol. 106), and twice without (M, fol. 109; D, fols. 112v-113). In illuminations of the white cloud of Revelation 14:14, four of the five studied have white outlines or are solidly white (white: M, fol. 178v, G, fols. 193v-194, J, fol. 209, E, fol. 120; not white: D, fol. 168). The white horses of Revelation 19:11-14 are painted white in the two examples I could find (O, no folio number available, J, fol. 240). The white throne in the Last Judgment (Revelation 20:11) is not white in M, fol. 219v. The rosycolored horse of Revelation 6:1-8 is shown as orange,red, or white with red patternson it in all four of the illuminations analyzed (V, fol. 93, G, fol. 126, J, fol. 135, O, no folio number available). In summary, nineteen of the twenty-seven examples studied here correspondto the color word in the text, and eight do not. 26. BarbaraKellum suggested this fascinating parallel. Cf. L. M. Wilson, The Roman Toga (Baltimore, 1924), 51-52. 27. J, fols. 43v, 138v-139, 182v, 209. E, fols. lv, 120. G, fols. 34, 161v, 167v, 193v-194. 28. M, fols. 26, 146, 154v, 178v. 29. Fols. 21, 138v-139, 144, 168. 30. "Induti linum mundum splendidum et cincti super pectora sua zonas aureas." 31. Occasionally the wings of an angel were completely outlined in white: fols. 152v-153, 181v, 185. 32. D, fol. 24, illustrating Revelation 1:14-16, shows a white face and white lines in God's hair, but the "eyes like a flame of fire" and "feet like burnished bronze" show little or no indication of light or brightness. Two very clearly colored examples of this text are seen in J, fol. 46 and E, fol. 3v. In D, the "white robes" of Revelation 4:4, 6:11, and 7:9 are multi-colored (fols. 83, 105v, 112v-113). 33. U. Eco and Werckmeisterhave already suggested a mnemonic function for the illuminations. Neither treats the subject at great length, nor do they discuss the possible mnemonic role of color. Eco, Beato di Liedbana. Miniature del Beato de Fernando I y Sancha (Parma, 1973), 37. Werckmeister,"The First RomanesqueBeatus Manuscriptsand the Liturgy of Death," in Actas del Simposio . .. Beato de Liebana, II, 165192, esp. 167-170. 34. Werckmeister,"First Romanesque Beatus Manuscripts,"168. 35. E A. Yates, TheArt of Memory (Chicago, 1966). M. J. Carruthers,The Book of Memory:A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture(Cambridge, 1990). 36. E Troncarelli,"Con la mano del cuore: l'arte della memoria nei codici di Cassiodoro,"Quaderni medievali, XX (1986), 22-58. My thanks to James O'Donnell for directing me to this article. 37. Mentr6, "L'Utilisationdes couleurs,"419; Klein, Altere Beatus-Kodex, 242. 38. G, fol. 15v, V, fol. 120, M, fols. 152v-153.

22. Colors are listed from top to bottom, and within the same horizontal band, from left to right. 23. Klein, AiltereBeatus-Kodex, 169.

32

39. This pattern is so consistent and so plentifully illustrated that it needs no list of examples. One unusual deviation from it is in D, fol. 126, in which the stars are gray-brown with red and sepia lines. 40. 41. J, fol. 169v; E, fol. 95v, the blue section in the upperright; M, fols. 137, 140v, 149, 202v; dark blue and orange-red, fol. 140v. Revelation 6:5: black: J, fol. 135; green-black: 0, fol. 85v; brownblack: D, fol. 102v; brown: V, fol. 93, G, fol. 126. Revelation 6:12: black: with red edges, M, fol. 112; with red lines, J, fol. 141v; brown: with a small yellow circle and orange-rededges, D, fol. 108. Inconsistency: gold with a small red center: G, fol. 131v. Pale purple was commonly used for lakes or pits of fire and brimstone, with the additionof red lines, but not otherwise in conjunctionwith any light source. M, fols. 212, 220, but not fol. 218; G, fols. 159v, 224v; J, fols. 187, 251. G, fol. 153. In one unusualexample it is brown, in fol. 92 of a manuscriptotherwise not considered in this study, the Beatus of San Millin, Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, cod. 33. Mentr6 points out that gold is rarely used in tenth-centurymanuscripts, with the exception of G, and that other metals are not used at all. Mentr6, La peinture "Mozarabe"(Paris, 1984), 62. Two medieval technical treatises, the Mappae clavicula and De diversis artibus, both link red to gold metal, and the latter text also mentions yellow. C. S. Smith and J. G. Hawthorne,"Mappae Clavicula: A Little Key to the Worldof Medieval Techniques,"Transactionsof the American Philosophical Society, n.s. LXIV (1975), 51. De Diversis Artibus, XXIII, XXIV, XXIX, in Theophilus:The VariousArts-De Diversis Artibus,ed. and trans.C. R. Dodwell (Oxford, 1986), 20-23, 28. Gold, often outlined in red, and in M sometimes also in blue: M, fols. 133v, 144, 178v, G, fols. 36v-37, 171v-172, J, fols. 46, 72v, 213. For yellow pigment with red lines or outlines, see M, fol. 27 (seven lamps), E, fol. 96v, D, fols. 83, 168. E, fol. 120 shows dark green blood with black and red lines. For fire see, among others, M, fols. 137, 149, 202v, J, fols. 166, 233v; for hail: M, fols. 134v (the backgroundcolor has bled throughthe pigment of the hail, but it looks as if it were originally white), 193, J, fols. 163v, 223 (with both black and white hail), G, fol. 149, D, fol. 127. M, fols. 33v-34 (parchmentwith darkred outlines and blue fish), 115v, 223, G, fols. 135, 152, 189, J, fols. 63v-64, 145, 166, 173, 216, 254, 0, fols. 34v-35, D, fols. 111, 138v-139, 147v-148, 175, 184v, 209. J, fol. 64.

56. 57.

Blue: V, fol. 93, J, fol. 135. Brown: D, with a blue face, fol. 102v, G, with a blue shirt, fol. 126. Examining devils in other Spanish images yields a similar, but not completely consistent picture. See, for example, the blue devil with brown hair or horns, shown twice in a Spanish Bible (Madrid, B. N. Vitrina 15-1, fol. 349), and the devil depicted three times, each time with a different range of colors, in the fresco originally in the Hermitage of San Baudelio de Berlanga, and now in The Cloisters, New York. In the first image of the devil in the fresco he is ocher, white and red; in the second, blue; and in the third,ocher. Both illumination and fresco are reproduced in color in The Art of Medieval Spain, AD 500-1200 (New York, 1993), 298, 224.

42.

58. The glaring exceptions to this pattern are the white devils in E, fols. 105 and 115. White outlines sometimes appear in G around brown devils, fol. 17v, and, also with red outlines, 224v. 59. M, white: fols. 87, 117v, 174v, 181v, 200, 222v. J, white: fols. 6v, 117v, 205, 230v, 253v. G, white: fols. 126, 189v-190, 196v, 213v, 138v-139 (white and exclusively red outlines); non-white: fol. Iv (gray-brown wash with red outlines). V, white: fol. 145v. D, white: fol. 170v; nonwhite: fols. 86v (pale blue-gray), 164, 188, 208v. U, white: fol. 198v. 0, white: fols. 92v, 165v. 60. Pastor Hermas, Vision, IV, 1, 10, trans. Dronke, "Traditionand Innovation," 63; Cives celestis patriae, Dronke, ibid., 77-79, esp. n. 81; Jerome, Ad Fabiolam, LXIV, 2 and 19, trans. Labourt, 121, 135-136; Isidore of Seville, Epistola, VII, 7-8, Redemptoarchidiacono; The Letters of Isidore of Seville, trans. G. B. Ford, Jr., 2nd ed. (Amsterdam, 1970), 42-43. James has noted that color symbolism was more fluid in the east than in the west, althoughit was "unfixed"in both regions. James, Light and Colour, 105. Despite the correspondence,the use of white is independentof the commentary.If the illuminatorshad followed the commentary,they would have been compelled to paint all holy subjects white, producing a very differentkind of illumination! In book four, Beatus comparesthe trinity to pure white cloth, which is "darkened"with colors, in other words heresies. Beatus, Commentarius in Apocalypsin, IV, ed. E. Romero, Sancti Beati a Liebana: Commentariusin Apocalypsin (Rome, 1985), I, 622-623, cited in Gage, Color and Culture, 63-64. Discussing Revelation 6:4, Beatus uses rubeus, not roseus, ed. Romero, I, 556. M. Roberts, The Jeweled Style. Poetry and Poetics in Late Antiquity (Ithaca, 1989); B. Brenk, "Spolia from Constantine to Charlemagne," DOP, XLI (1989), 103-109, esp. 105. Roberts'swork had a very stimulating effect on this section. I decided to use varietas over his word variatio, because I found it frequently used in later texts, and because, at least according to Cicero, "varietas is a Latin word properlyused of diversity of color." De finibus bonorum et malorum, II, 3, 10, cited by Roberts, Jeweled Style, 47. Varietasappearsfrequently in later western texts, albeit not always in the temporal and geographic orbit of early medieval Spain, to characterizean aesthetic preference.Some mentions of varietas without specific reference to color are: RupertusTuitiensis, De sancta trinitate et operibus eius, XIII; idem, in Exodum, IV, 706; and PetrusDamiani, Sermones, XXXII. Theophilus, in the twelfth century, does refer to color: Dodwell, Theophilus, xiv. Islamic art could also have played a role in the taste for variety seen in Beatus manuscript illuminations. Eraclius, De coloribus et artibus Romanorum,L, 57, trans. Merrifield, 244, 252-255. Dodwell notes that the common tenth-centurydating of

43. 44.

45.

61.

62.

46. 47.

48.

63. Beatus, Commentariusin Apocalypsin, IV, ed. Romero, I, 555-556. 64. 65.

49.

50. I am grateful to Kinney for this suggestion. My search for texts to explain these patternshas been limited. 51. Isidore, De rerumnatura, XXXI, 2, 15-20, cited in Dronke, "Tradition and Innovation,"70. Jerome wrote that "purple designates the ocean since its dye comes from mollusks," and that the color coccus, which is probablya red, means fire and ether. Jerome,Ad Fabiolam, LXIV, 18; Saint J1rome: Lettres, Collections des Universitis de France, ed. and trans. J. Labourt (Paris, 1953), 132. 52. Jerome,Ad Fabiolam, LXIV, 18, trans.Labourt, 132; Isidore, De rerum natura, XXXI, 2, 15-20, trans. Dronke, "Traditionand Innovation,"70. 53. Jerome, Ad Fabiolam, LXIV, 18, trans. Labourt, 132. 54. Dronke, "Traditionand Innovation,"70. 55. Blue-black: M, fols. 152v-153. Black: J, fols. 186v-187, G, fol. 224v, U, fols. 140v-141, D, fols. 147v-148. Brown: M, fols. 212, 218, G, fols. 16v, 17, 171v-172, 224v, 228, J, fol. 249, O, fols. 23, 117; very dark brown: D, fol. 199v; brown with white outlines, G, fol. 17v. The exception is E, in which the devils are white: fols. 105, 115.

66. James, Light and Colour, 8-9. 67.

33

this work is incorrect, and that the earliest surviving fragment of it is from the eleventh century. It probably did not reach its complete state until the twelfth century. Dodwell, Theophilus, xiv. 68. Dodwell, Theophilus, xix. 69. Theophilus, II, preface, trans. Dodwell, Theophilus, 37. 70. M has at least 110 variationsof color, while D includes about 58. Klein matchedthe colors in J to color chips and found 180 variationsof color. Klein, Altere Beatus-Kodex, 238-239. 71. Many of the pigments in G are thin washes, and do not lend themselves to layering colors on top of each other. Many different colors are still used to depict a single figure,but they arejuxtaposed ratherthanplaced on top of one another. I give just one example of each type itemized in Fig. 2. Type 1: D, fol. 170v; type 2: D, fol. 7v; type 3: J, fol. 112v; type 4: M, fol. 183v; type 5: D, fol. 86v; type 6: J, fol. 205; type 7: J, fol. 176v; type 8: M, fol. 219v. On several of these folios more than one type appears. In Fig. 4, A = teal-green, B = yellow, C = orange, D = orange-red,E = olive-green.

77. Fols. 7v, 8 (colored text), 21, 83, 86v, 105v, 108, 111, 112v-113, 126, 133v, 138v-139, 141v, 147v-148, 151v-152, 164, 170v, 194v, 201, 209, 216. 78. Werckmeisteridentifies a similar color alternationin an illumination in the CodexAemilianensis, but suggests a differentmotivation for its use. See n. 5, and "Das Bild ... im Codex Aemilianensis,"418-422. 79. Beatus interpretedthe seven-headed dragon as the devil. J. J. Poesch, "Antichrist (Disserimagery in Anglo-FrenchApocalypse Manuscripts" tation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1966), 93-94, citing Romero, Sancti Beati Commentarius,II, 945.

72.

80. Werckmeisterdescribes these two zones as containing separatecategories: those waiting to be judged, and the damned. "First Romanesque Beatus Manuscripts,"180-183. Williams interpretsthem as a unified group of the damned, in A Spanish Apocalypse: the Morgan Beatus Manuscript (New York, 1991), 17-18. 81. Interestingly,though, there is variety of a sort, for while the clothing of individualsis monochromatic,each zone forms a patternof colored repetition. The top zone follows an ABCBA sequence, while the second row is aligned in a simple ABAB format. Nevertheless, the use of only three basic colors contrasts sharply with the numerous colors usually employed. 82. The nude dead, the devil and the lamb are usually rendered without a build-up of colors in other manuscripts.Othergroups of figures are not so rendered, and thus far I have not found compelling evidence for expanding this interpretationfrom M to other manuscripts.

73.

74. A = yellow, B = white, C = red. 75. Fols. 109, 183v, 117v-118, 214, 220. 76. Fols. 141v, 145v, 162v, 176v, 184v, 205, 250v-251.

34

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