De coloribus: The Meanings of Color in Beatus Manuscripts
Author(s): Elizabeth S. Bolman
Source: Gesta, Vol. 38, No. 1 (1999), pp. 22-34
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the International Center of
Medieval Art
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De coloribus: The Meanings of Color in Beatus Manuscripts*
ELIZABETH S. BOLMAN
Temple University
Abstract
Beatus manuscripts are analyzed for patterns of color use.
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,
thereby broadening our understanding of medieval ideas about
These patterns suggest that color functioned differently than
color.
twentieth-century viewers might expect. Links between the text
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.
This study is premised on the idea that human responses
to color are historically and culturally specific. Illuminations
of the Apocalypse in mid-tenth- through early twelfth-century
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 manuscripts were chosen with ref-
erence 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 Fernand L6ger what single work of art
he should see in New York, Meyer Schapiro chose a tenthcentury illuminated copy of Beatus of Li6bana's Commentarius in Apocalypsin, housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library
(Color Pls. 1-2).' Schapiro has described mozarabic painting,
of which Beatus manuscripts are a large part, as "an art of
color."2 Mireille Mentr6 has pointed out that most twentieth-
century viewers enthusiastically describe the colors in the
illuminations of these manuscripts as beautiful, passionate
and powerful, but that nineteenth-century viewers usually said
they were ugly.3 As this dichotomy illustrates, responses to
color can change over time. Recent scholarship has also shown
that people in different parts of the world, and at different
times in history, have had varying ideas about the nature and
meanings of color.4
Despite the salience of color as one of the determining
characteristics of Beatus manuscripts, it has not been the sub-
ject of rigorous historical analysis.5 The purpose of this study
is to demonstrate that a series of historically-specific ideas
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
arranged his Commentary in sections, each beginning with
several verses from the book of Revelation followed by the
relevant exegesis. In the mid-tenth- through early twelfthcentury manuscripts considered in this study, the illuminations
illustrate the biblical text and are placed adjacent or 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 groupings were made on the
basis of textual and iconographical differences. While their
basic assignment into three divisions has not been changed,
the relationship of elements within these recensions continues
to be revised.8 Analysis 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 manuscripts for patterns of color use."'
All were copied and illuminated in a small, relatively isolated
area of northern Spain, between ca. 940 and 1109 C.E. Two
color. In some ways Beatus manuscripts provide a more fruitful ground for analysis of color patterns than the geographically disparate, and principally monumental examples used by
are ascribed to stemma I, five to stemma IIa, and one is from
stemma IIb. Their selection was informed by several factors,
the most important of which are their close temporal and geographical relationships. An attempt to build an understanding
of historically specific ideas about color can most profitably
be undertaken within restricted parameters. Because textual
and iconographic elements tend to be transmitted through
copying, a study of patterns of color use must consider this
factor as well. Finally, the pragmatic reality of access to manuscripts and to color reproductions of them has also informed
Gage and James. The density of illustration in each manu-
my selection."
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 patterns will help to test proposals by
John Gage and Liz James concerning medieval ideas about
22 GESTA XXXVIII/1 ? The International Center of Medieval Art 1999
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Commentary
Key:
Stemma I, 784 edition Stemma IIa
Stemma I, 784
Stemma I, earlier 8th c.A San Milln
edition
E
A2 San Millin
Escorial
N Navarre
Fc Silos Fragment
L Lorvdo
O Osma
C Corsini
Stemma I, earlier 8th c.
A' Madrid 14-1
Stemma IIb S San Sever
Fc
A'
M
Stemma
T
A2
G
|
|
V
M
IIa
Morgan
U Urgell
Valladolid
U V J Facundus
D Silos
1TuStemma IIb
L
R
T
Tabara
Pc
Tu
Fr
Ar
Pc
Fr
G Girona
Turin
H Las Huelgas
R Rylands
Cardefia
Ar Arroyo
Riosecco
FIGURE 1. Stemmata for Beatus manuscripts, after Klein, Der diltere Beatus-Kodex, II, 36 and Williams, Illustrated Beatus, I, 23, 26 (drawing: author).
Historical Perceptions and Definitions of Color
saturation radiating out horizontally from its center.'3 Inter-
estingly, no consensus exists even today on which hues are
Asking questions about color systems and selecting terminology presuppose an awareness of 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, apparent in 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 understanding and 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.
primary. Newton, acknowledging that the color spectrum was
continuous, still identified seven color segments in it: red,
orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.14 The Munsell
theory, which was the first three-dimensional model 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,
blue, and purple."5 Note that even though both systems are
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,
Value indicates the degree of white or black added to the hue,
texture, and lustrousness.'7 Color theories, therefore, even
and is sometimes called tone or brightness. Saturation means
the intensity or purity of a hue. The most common three-
those based on scientific data, are historically constructed.
dimensional color models position hue around the circum-
Gage and James helps to make sense of some of the patterns
of color use identified in this study. Using texts and images,
ference of a globe, value along its central vertical axis, and
Recent scholarship on medieval ideas about color by
23
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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 primary poles of this linear model were white
and black, with red and possibly also purple understood to 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 about the 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
saturation are 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-century reader of English understands in relation to
atively close relationship to one another, textually and icon-
ographically (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 particularly noteworthy in light of
the fact that Klein has observed a close iconographic relationship between them.23 These examples suggest that color
was only rarely transmitted from 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 relationship between the text of the Apocalypse
and the iconography in Beatus illuminations has been demonstrated.24 A survey focused on the two words alba and roseus
a specific hue range, in other contexts might have entailed
revealed a correspondence in colors in about seventy-five
reference to additional hues and to other qualities, such as
percent of the examples studied, or eighty-five percent if we
remove the Silos Beatus, the latest manuscript considered.25
brightness. It has been shown that in antiquity and the middle
ages, the word purpureus referred to hues which we identify
as red and blue in addition to purple, and also connoted sat-
uration 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-red means red which tends towards
orange.
The Colors of the Text and Mnemonics
Examination of Beatus manuscript illuminations for color
use yields numerous patterns. One which we might expect
to find, given standard medieval artistic practice, is missing,
and that is a close chromatic relationship 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 natural world, symbolism,
and an aesthetic appreciation of variety. The absence of evidence for habitual copying of color along with text and iconography can best be demonstrated by considering subjects
which likely have no specific symbolic, natural, aesthetic, or
textual reference point. Analysis of the background bands in
The book of Revelation includes both color words and words
for substances and qualities which suggest color. An example
of the latter is 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 apparent to 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 familiar to twentieth-century viewers. In the
second, outlines were the site of the object's most important
color. The convention of using a border area or stripe to carry
the color designation of the whole may derive ultimately from
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 around its periphery. The color of the border
was the significant element, and not the overall color of the
fabric. The practice of decorating clothing 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
manuscripts demonstrates 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,
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. 198v199: pale yellow, orange, pale purple, yellow, orange).22 The
Urgell and Facundus (J) manuscripts have differently colored
bands in the upper two-thirds of the folios, but are the same
yellow with white outlines. These clouds can be read as white
because of the outlines. Yet two of the three other clouds in
in the lower thirds (U, fols. 198v-199: pale yellow, orange,
pale purple, yellow, orange; J, fol. 254: blue, yellow, pale
this manuscript also have white outlines, so the "white cloud"
is not set apart from the other clouds by white pigment, as it
purple, yellow, orange). These three manuscripts have a rel-
the clouds referred to 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
is in J, E, and G.28 The nubes alba in the Valladolid Beatus
24
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(V) is white (fol. 148v). The clouds in the Silos Beatus are
In the Morgan manuscript (fols. 117v-118), at the beginning
completely inconsistent with the text; only one is white, and
it corresponds to Revelation 10:1, not 14:14.29
of stemma IIa, the palm-bearing figures are dressed in multi-
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 surprising role 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
colored 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 bright-
ness aspect of alba (fol. 106). In the Silos Beatus, which is
at the very end of stemma IIa, no white appears in this scene
(fols. 112v-113).
These examples demonstrate two 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 illu-
shown dressed in mantles and tunics in a range of colors (fol.
mination from illumination. Choices seem to have been made,
181 lv; Color P1. 1, a). When John next mentions them, he describes their dress, saying that they wear clean, shining linen
and have golden girdles upon their breasts (Revelation 15:6;
perhaps by the illuminator or scribe, independently of the
pictorial model used. This differs from our understanding of
fol. 183v; Color P1l. 1, b).30 Two features in the depiction of
imagery were copied with fidelity from models. The frequent
correlation of text and painted colors continues to appear in
Beatus manuscripts into the eleventh century, suggesting that
there was an enduring motivation for these choices. The late
the only instance of completely white outlining of any figure
in the Morgan Beatus.31 Within the outlines, none of the color
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 nar-
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
combinations used in their dress in the angels' first appearance is duplicated. Folio 183v represents the second and third
textual references to the angels as a group (Revelation 15:67). In the final appearance of all seven, the text indicates noth-
standard medieval practice, according to which text and
rative 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
ing 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).
been applied by the artist consistently to every appearance of
This time, two of the seven color combinations in their man-
northern Spain memorized the Apocalypse text.33 Beatus wrote
tles and tunics repeat those in their second appearance.
Color choices for the dress of the main protagonists of
these scenes in the densely illustrated Morgan manuscript are
not consistent from image to image. They do not assist the
viewer in identifying sequential moments in time, in the man-
in his commentary that the Apocalypse was the key to all of
ner 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 rendered in the
Morgan manuscript with white pigment. Brightness is depicted with white, and this choice corresponds with the color
most often used for sources of light, as will be demonstrated
the single textual reference to details of dress would have
the figures. It has been suggested that monks and nuns in
the Bible's books, thus indicating its importance in early
medieval Spain.34 Consider again the Morgan Beatus's plaguebearing 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 surprisingly dense
sequence of images for a short passage. Visually, the nar-
If, in some instances, a clear link exists between specific
words in the text (whether abstract color words or words for
rative 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 reader intent on mem-
substances and qualities) and the colors of the illuminations,
there is also a substantial number of instances in which the
orizing the corresponding text.
The various classical and medieval texts on mnemonic
below.
link is unclear, or absent. Revelation 7:9 describes a multi-
techniques known to us use visual images to assist memoriza-
tude of people in white (alba) robes, holding palm branches.
tion.35 While this feature of the treatises might seem to support
25
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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 mnemonic practice may not always have
conformed to these rules. A recent study of the schematic
images accompanying several early versions of Cassiodorus's
the colors used to render the word niger (the remaining two-
Institutiones suggests just such a mnemonic function for
render light. The illuminator of the Silos manuscript, however, does not seem to have used colors representing extremes
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 darkening of
them.36 In 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
incorporating parallels to verbal signs for color.
Representations of the Natural World
Mentr6 and Klein have remarked that the colors chosen
by the illuminators of Beatus manuscripts have no relationship to the natural world.37 Given the brightly colored bands
in their backgrounds, and the appearance of 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 defined by light and shadow.
thirds 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 under-
standable, as white was the color most commonly used to
light. The Girona manuscript probably illustrates a similar
tendency, following which pale purple was chosen for the
dark third because it is darker than 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
sources of light and darkness.42 The stars in illuminations of
Revelation 8:12 correspond irregularly with the text. In some
cases a third of each star seems to have been darkened, in others a third of the group of stars,43 and in the Morgan and Silos
There is no illusionistic space in these paintings. Nonethe-
manuscripts there is no suggestion of darkening at all. Light
and darkness are not shown illusionistically, but through the
mediation of medieval ideas about the relationship between
less, the natural world does seem to have played an important
role in the color choices of Beatus manuscript illuminators,
although it is ideas about nature which informed them, not
represent value, that is to say light and darkness. Hail, blood,
skin, water, and precious metals are also regularly depicted
unmediated nature itself. Just as the sense we make of color is
with colors that relate to the natural world.
constructed, so is the sense we make of nature. In the manu-
Colors used for skin are consistently white, tan, or peach
(Color Pls. 1-2).44 Gold is rendered with actual gold, or with
one or more of the colors used to depict light.45 Lambs are
usually white (Color P1. 1, a). Blood is bright or dark red, or,
exceptionally, only partly red.46 Hail is almost always white.47
Rivers and oceans are usually blue; less frequently they are
designated by the off-white of unpainted parchment, with blue
fish and blue outlines.48 The only dramatic deviation from
this pattern is 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
scripts it is possible to find regular patterns of color choices
in depictions of light and of darkness, and also for certain
physical substances such as blood and hail.
The illuminations of Beatus manuscripts are 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, appears twice 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 complicated pattern. "The fourth
angel blew his trumpet, and a third of 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
hue and value. Colors that we read as hues were chosen to
to the four elements.50 Jerome 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 probably belonged 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
Isidore described the element of earth as dark,54 but the colors
26
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of mountains in Beatus manuscripts seem almost as varied as
palette ranges would permit, and they are not limited to the
hues used to render darkness. The motivation for choosing
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
varying colors for mountains and trees, but only red for blood
All but one of these non-white examples are in the Silos
is not easily explicable in natural terms, unless it is because
blood is a relatively constant color, while trees and the flora
Beatus. The symbolic consistency of white, and the symbolic
inconsistency of other colors, is a characteristic of medieval
on mountains change color with seasons, geographical loca-
texts as well. In texts, white is often linked to a symbolic
tion, availability of water, and quality of light.
The patterns of colors used for sources of light and of
cluster including brightness, purity, sanctity, cleanliness, chastity, and the lamb of God.60 Even if white was used in the
darkness in these illuminations show that what we define as
illuminations for its value aspect-as brightness or light-it
hues, for example red, included value-a quality of light or
is unusual that only this one of the four hues used to render
light was chosen for the lamb, and only rarely were lambs
darkness-in early medieval Spain. Since red conveyed light,
it was a bright color, second only to white, and brighter than
outlined in red. This is in contrast to the coloration of the
yellow. These results correspond to Gage's characterization
devil, for whom all of the three hues used to render darkness
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 demonstration of the relationship of hues to each other
were employed.
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
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.61 The evidence from the illuminations corresponds to Beatus's discussion of this subject in
his commentary.62 In the exegesis of the rosy-colored (roseus)
colors used to represent them. In addition, red was constantly
horse of Revelation 6:4, Beatus explains that heretics, who
used for blood, and white for hail. These patterns indicate
"shed innocent blood," and the devil, with whom they are in
league, sit upon this horse.63 The horse is roseus because of
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 manuscript illuminations, non-illusionistic though
they may be.
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
Color Symbolism
symbolizes evil killing, and the other sacred martyrdom.64 In
All three of the hues used in Beatus manuscript illuminations to represent darkness appear consistently in one other
suggestion of light or darkness. Color can work symbolically
this case colors are discussed simply as hues, without the
context: they depict the devil and Hades, who is the personification of hell. Devils in all but one of the Beatus manu-
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
scripts studied are rendered in blue, black, or brown.55 The
personification of Hades appears as blue or brown, or a com-
than can be retrieved by us.
bination of both.56 This raises the interesting possibility that
what we tend to read as hues-blue, brown, and black-func-
Varietas
tioned 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 representations of sacred subjects, such as angels and God,
as one example from the Facundus Beatus demonstrates. The
Woman Clothed 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
An appreciation for variety, with or without color, has
been recognized as a characteristic of late antique poetry by
Michael Roberts, and of late antique sculpture by 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 manufacture of 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.67 Written in the early twelfth century,68 Theophilus's De diversis artibus gives us a richer understanding of the
importance of varietas. The sanctuary of 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 In the case of varietas, it does not matter
if these colors were principally thought of as hues or as areas
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Type 1: linear mirrored repetition A A
or:
ABC
CBA
Type 2: mirrored repetition along A B
a diagonal grid BX
Type 3: linear (horizontal or vertical)
repetition of a pattern: ABABABABABAB
or: ABCBABCBABCBA
or:
ACBAC
BACBA
CBACB
Type 4: regularly colored pairs in A B C D E F G
two zones: H A B C D E F
Type 5: linear pattern reversed in AB CD
lower zone: DC BA
Type 6: like elements framing a
regular pattern: A BCDCBCDC A
Type 7: like elements framing an
irregular pattern: A BCDEFGHI A
borders are apparent in several stemma I manuscripts, but
they lack the feature which makes the stemma II manuscripts
so unusual. In illuminations of both branches of stemma II,
the colored and patterned border contrasts with solidly colored background bands, upon which are added numerous small
figures with densely built-up colors.7" Banding can be seen
in all of the stemma II manuscripts studied, and it increases
chromatic variety considerably.
Carefully structured patterns of like colors add further varieties of variety to Beatus manuscript illuminations (Fig. 2).72
These patterns operate with 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
repetition of a pair or paired groups of figures (Type 1 in Fig. 2).
For example, in the upper left zone of the magnificent, double-
folio 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 mirrored repetition along a diagonal grid. Linear repetition of a pattern is also used; the pattern may be very simple
or complex. In the scene of the Millennial Judges and the
Souls of the Martyrs in the Morgan Beatus (fol. 214), the birds
in the lower section of the illumination represent the martyrs'
FIGURE 2. Principles of varietas in Beatus manuscripts.
souls (Fig. 3; Color Pl. 2, a). They are colored in pairs, in a
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 northern Spain.
Chromatic variety is an obvious characteristic of Beatus
manuscript illuminations. Variety exists in the sheer number
repeating ABC pattern which works vertically and also from
left to right. The sequence of colors is the same throughout:
white, corresponding to 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 pattern with A, B and C. The second row starts with
of colors used.70 The way in which these many colors are
C, and then immediately follows with A and B. The third
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
illuminations studied are intricately patterned with colors, and
each figure is painted with a dense build-up of colors, often
again picks up the last color at the bottom of the preceding
row, and continues in the same order.
between seven and nine hues on a single figure (Color Pls.
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 repeated in reverse, in a lower zone. Elements
in one color or set of colors frame two types of sequences:
regularly alternating colors, and completely irregularly colored
patterns. Often, several types of color repetitions are combined
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 structuring of 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 manu-
script which includes only about ten colors, like the Escorial
Beatus of stemma I, by painting a multi-colored, patterned
border; a single background color (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
A more complex variation, Type 4, regularly colors two
different elements in adjacent figures. For example, in the
Morgan's Plague-Bearing Angels (fol. 183v; Color Pl. 1, b),
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 regular pattern 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 tracing of the Vision of the Lamb
in the Silos Beatus (fol. 86v).73 In the four angels at the top
of this miniature, simple mirrored repetition 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
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(I'Lr / rAtC TC rB
B
B
A
c
c
B
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
larger circle includes repetitions within a regular schema. 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, yel-
low); 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 elaborated or changed them. An examination of the birds shown in the images of the Opening of the
Fifth Seal in three manuscripts of 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.75 The
examination of color reproductions of most of the Facundus
Beatus (1047 c.E.) indicated seven clear instances.76 Twentyone 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.78 In the Morgan
Beatus, however, its absence also may have functioned symbolically. In the profusion of structured and contrasting variety
in the Morgan Beatus, most angelic and evil beings are rendered in like fashion. For example, the Antichrist storming the
faithful, in the middle zone of folio 215v, and the evil serpent
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M, fol. 109 AAAAAA BBBB
BBBBB AAAAA
CCCCC CCCCC
E
BCBAB BABA
E
A
c
A
B
c
J, fol. 138v AA AA BBBB
E
BB BB AAAA
AA AA BBBB
C~C
E
B
D, fol. 105v AAAAA BBBB
c
AAAA
c,
BBBB
AAAAA BBBB
FIGURE 5. Varietas in stemma Ha manuscripts, birds in the Opening of
the Fifth Seal.
C
BBE
B
beasts. As noted above, evil and angelic beings, true believers and those worshipping falsely are all rendered with varied
colors. Yet when the devil appears unmasked, and is recognized for himself, this coloristic diversity vanishes.79 SimiB
larly, when the heretics and worshippers of the beast are finally
`
seen as damned on their day of judgment, they stand in monochromatic garb in the upper two zones at the far right of a
EE
C
E
C
A
/
E B
r
A'
C
E
A
E B
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
B
Inferences may be drawn from the absence of variety.
The rupturing of 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 appear to
add meaning to these illuminations. Chromatic varietas is cre-
FIGURE 4. Varietas in D (Silos Beatus), fol. 86v, the Vision of the Lamb
(drawing. author).
and the angels of the Lord in the scene of the Woman Clothed
with the Sun (fols. 152v-153), are all depicted in a similarly
diverse range of colors in the standard dense build-up. In four
cases, however, the usual density of figural color 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 rendered in a single, solid block of color, and outlined
or detailed with one additional color. Compared to the usual
appearance of figures with numerous and often carefully patterned colors, these figures stand out.
This rare, but regular absence of varietas must be meaningful, even though these unadorned subjects cannot share a
unified or even a related symbolism. One theme of Beatus's
commentary is heresy, and he is particularly concerned 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
ated in all of the Beatus manuscripts I have studied. Thus far,
I have noted its apparently meaningful absence only in the
Morgan Beatus.82
Conclusion
John Gage's broadly conceived demonstration of the historically and culturally specific nature of color and Liz James's
more focussed study of Byzantine ideas about color make it
absolutely clear that art historians must reconstruct histori-
cal ideas about color, and not use post-Newtonian models in
an attempt to understand original intention and meaning. This
analysis of Beatus manuscripts provides further evidence 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
30
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words or passages in the accompanying Apocalypse text, per-
haps 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 recreation of the world around them,
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 val-
ues 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
appreciation of polychromatic diversity, and varieties of variety, is apparent in 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 manuscripts indicates
that instances of elaborately structured varietas increased over
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
chromatic data from any group of like manuscripts datable to
a limited time period.
2. M. Schapiro, "From Mozarabic to Romanesque at Silos," in Romanesque Art: Selected Papers (New York, 1977), I, 35.
3. M. Mentre, "L'Utilisation des couleurs dans la miniature mozarabe," in
Espafia entre el Mediterraneo y el Atlantico (Actas del XXIII Congreso
Internacional de Historia del Arte, Granada, 1973) (Granada, 1976), I,
417.
4. This work would not have been possible without the important contributions of John Gage: Color and Culture: Practice and Meaning from
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 Fortunes of Apelles," JWCI, XLIV (1981), 1-26. See also L. James,
Light and Colour in Byzantine Art (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
Colour: Eranos Yearbook 1972 (Leiden, 1974), 327-364; and P. Dronke,
"Tradition and Innovation in Medieval Western Colour-Imagery," ibid.,
51-107.
5. Some scholars have questioned the sources of influence on the colors,
and others have discussed their material aspects, identified palette ranges,
or discussed their optical and psychological effects. For completely or
primarily formal analyses, see G. G. King, "Divagations on the Beatus,"
Art Studies: Medieval, Renaissance and Modern, VIII (1930), 3-58;
Schapiro, "From Mozarabic to Romanesque," 28-101, esp. 33-35. For
brief remarks on sources of influence see J. Williams, The Illustrated
Beatus. A Corpus of Illustrations of the Commentary on 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, Illustrated Beatus, I, 64, 73; and P. Klein,
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.
Preliminary presentations of the results were made at the 1993 Patristic
Medieval and Renaissance Conference at Villanova University, and at
the Twenty-Ninth International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kala-
mazoo 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 stimulating conversations. Annemarie Weyl Carr and an anonymous reader provided 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, Marshall Johnston, 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, Curator of
Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library, for her permission to
study Add. MS 11695, and to William Voelkle and Roger Wieck, Curator and Assistant Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts
at the Pierpont Morgan Library, for their permission to study M644.
I have benefitted from Lynn Fotheringham's painstaking and excellent
Latin translations.
1. H. Epstein, "Meyer Schapiro: 'A Passion to Know and to Make Known,'"
Art News (May 1983), 61.
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 manuscript and 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 organization which was first developed in the seventeenth century. Mentr6, O. K. Werckmeister and King are the only three,
to my knowledge, to have considered some historical aspects of color,
apart from the subject of the origins of pigments. Mentr6's analyses of
color systems in Beatus manuscripts are interesting, as she treats color
as a factor capable of producing meaning in Beatus manuscript illuminations. She also acknowledges that the observation and appreciation of
colors are affected by many factors. Unfortunately, she still analyzes
color combinations in modern terms (a hue-based system with complementary, contrasting and 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
31
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Spanish manuscript (Madrider Mitteilungen, IX [1968], 418-423). My
work neither contradicts nor depends on Werckmeister's conclusions,
but could coexist readily with them. Unfortunately, difficulty in deciding
which colors to count and how to identify them (e.g., outline colors, and
value or hue) has prevented me from applying Werckmeister's method.
King tantalizingly alludes to the influence of Islamic numerological
color theory in a few unspecified manuscripts, which she says were cop-
ied by "Sarracinus." She 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 arrange hues on a wheel
have their origins in the 1600s; Gage, Color and Culture, 153-154.
Formal analyses 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.
24. Williams, Illustrated Beatus, 32-34; Mentr6, Illuminated Manuscripts,
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 number available). 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,
7. Ibid., I, 31.
J, fol. 209, E, fol. 120; not white: D, fol. 168). The white horses of Rev-
8. K. B. Steinhauser, The Apocalypse Commentary of Tyconius: A History
of Its Reception and Influence (Frankfurt am Main, 1987), 158-161;
Williams, Illustrated Beatus, I, 20-26.
elation 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
9. Williams, Illustrated Beatus, I, 23, 26.
colored horse of Revelation 6:1-8 is shown as orange, red, or white with
10. They are: New York City, The Pierpont Morgan 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.
Judgment (Revelation 20:11) is not white in M, fol. 219v. The rosyred patterns on 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 correspond to the
color word in the text, and eight do not.
26. Barbara Kellum 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.
12. A. Kornerup and J. H. Wanscher, Methuen Handbook of 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, The Munsell Book of Color (Baltimore, 1929),
12-13. Kornerup and Wanscher, Handbook, 12.
14. H. C. Conklin, "Color Categorization," review of Basic Color Terms:
Their Universality and 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.
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 Werckmeister have 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 Romanesque Beatus Manuscripts and the Liturgy of Death," in Actas del Simposio . .. Beato de Liebana, II, 165-
192, esp. 167-170.
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.
34. Werckmeister, "First Romanesque Beatus Manuscripts," 168.
35. E A. Yates, The Art of Memory (Chicago, 1966). M. J. Carruthers, The
Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture (Cambridge,
1990).
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.
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
22. Colors are listed from top to bottom, and within the same horizontal
37. Mentr6, "L'Utilisation des couleurs," 419; Klein, Altere Beatus-Kodex,
James O'Donnell for directing me to this article.
242.
band, from left to right.
23. Klein, Ailtere Beatus-Kodex, 169.
38. G, fol. 15v, V, fol. 120, M, fols. 152v-153.
32
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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. J, fol. 169v; E, fol. 95v, the blue section in the upper right; M, fols. 137,
140v, 149, 202v; dark blue and orange-red, fol. 140v.
41. 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-red edges, D, fol. 108. Inconsistency: gold with a small red center: G, fol. 131v.
42. Pale purple was commonly used for lakes or pits of fire and brimstone,
with the addition of red lines, but not otherwise in conjunction with any
light source. M, fols. 212, 220, but not fol. 218; G, fols. 159v, 224v;
J, fols. 187, 251.
43. G, fol. 153.
44. In one unusual example it is brown, in fol. 92 of a manuscript otherwise
not considered in this study, the Beatus of San Millin, Madrid, Real
Academia de la Historia, cod. 33.
45. Mentr6 points out that gold is rarely used in tenth-century manuscripts,
with the exception of G, and that other metals are not used at all. Men-
tr6, 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 World of Medieval Techniques," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n.s. LXIV (1975), 51. De Diversis Artibus, XXIII, XXIV, XXIX, in
Theophilus: The Various Arts-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.
46. E, fol. 120 shows dark green blood with black and red lines.
47. For fire see, among others, M, fols. 137, 149, 202v, J, fols. 166, 233v;
for hail: M, fols. 134v (the background color has bled through the 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.
48. M, fols. 33v-34 (parchment with dark red 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.
56. Blue: V, fol. 93, J, fol. 135. Brown: D, with a blue face, fol. 102v, G,
with a blue shirt, fol. 126.
57. 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 Hermit-
age 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.
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, 1 17v,
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, "Tradition and Inno-
vation," 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, Redempto archidiacono; The Letters of Isidore of Seville, trans. G. B. Ford, Jr., 2nd ed. (Amsterdam,
1970), 42-43.
61. James has noted that color symbolism was more fluid in the east than
in the west, although it was "unfixed" in both regions. James, Light and
Colour, 105.
62. Despite the correspondence, the use of white is independent of the commentary. If the illuminators had followed the commentary, they would
have been compelled to paint all holy subjects white, producing a very
different kind of illumination! In book four, Beatus compares the 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: Commentarius in Apocalypsin (Rome, 1985),
I, 622-623, cited in Gage, Color and Culture, 63-64.
63. Beatus, Commentarius in Apocalypsin, IV, ed. Romero, I, 555-556.
64. Discussing Revelation 6:4, Beatus uses rubeus, not roseus, ed. Romero,
I, 556.
49. J, fol. 64.
50. I am grateful to Kinney for this suggestion. My search for texts to
explain these patterns has been limited.
51. Isidore, De rerum natura, 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 probably a 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, "Tradition and Innovation," 70.
53. Jerome, Ad Fabiolam, LXIV, 18, trans. Labourt, 132.
54. Dronke, "Tradition and 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.
65. 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's work 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 properly used of
diversity of color." De finibus bonorum et malorum, II, 3, 10, cited by
Roberts, Jeweled Style, 47. Varietas appears frequently in later western
texts, albeit not always in the temporal and geographic orbit of early
medieval Spain, to characterize an aesthetic preference. Some mentions
of varietas without specific reference to color are: Rupertus Tuitiensis,
De sancta trinitate et operibus eius, XIII; idem, in Exodum, IV, 706;
and Petrus Damiani, 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.
66. James, Light and Colour, 8-9.
67. Eraclius, De coloribus et artibus Romanorum, L, 57, trans. Merrifield,
244, 252-255. Dodwell notes that the common tenth-century dating of
33
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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.
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. Werckmeister identifies a similar color alternation in an illumination in
68. Dodwell, Theophilus, xix.
the Codex Aemilianensis, but suggests a different motivation for its use.
69. Theophilus, II, preface, trans. Dodwell, Theophilus, 37.
70. M has at least 110 variations of color, while D includes about 58. Klein
matched the colors in J to color chips and found 180 variations of 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 are juxtaposed rather than placed
on top of one another.
72. 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.
73. In Fig. 4, A = teal-green, B = yellow, C = orange, D = orange-red, E =
olive-green.
74. A = yellow, B = white, C = red.
See n. 5, and "Das Bild ... im Codex Aemilianensis," 418-422.
79. Beatus interpreted the seven-headed dragon as the devil. J. J. Poesch,
"Antichrist imagery in Anglo-French Apocalypse Manuscripts" (Disser-
tation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1966), 93-94, citing
Romero, Sancti Beati Commentarius, II, 945.
80. Werckmeister describes these two zones as containing separate categories: those waiting to be judged, and the damned. "First Romanesque
Beatus Manuscripts," 180-183. Williams interprets them 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
individuals is monochromatic, each zone forms a pattern of colored rep-
etition. 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
75. Fols. 109, 183v, 117v-118, 214, 220.
build-up of colors in other manuscripts. Other groups of figures are not
76. Fols. 141v, 145v, 162v, 176v, 184v, 205, 250v-251.
expanding this interpretation from M to other manuscripts.
so rendered, and thus far I have not found compelling evidence for
34
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