William de Brailes

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Initial with a self-portrait and the signature W. de Brailes

William de Brailes (* before 1230; † 1260 ) was an English illuminator . He was active when illumination was not only practiced by monasteries, but increasingly also by independent artists who worked for a fee for religious and secular clients. Braile's workshop is the first workshop of Gothic book illumination , for which the name, location and works have been handed down.

William de Brailes probably came from Upper or Lower Brailes, a village near Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire . He is certainly identical to that William de Brailes, who is mentioned in five deeds in Oxford between 1230 and 1260 . In a certificate he is named as a witness together with three other illuminators, three bookbinders and a parchment maker. The signature W. de Brailes is preserved in two illustrated manuscripts drawn up in the middle of the 13th century.

He was probably the head of an illuminating workshop he ran on Catte Street in Oxford, probably where the chapel of All Souls College now stands. This part of the city around St Mary's Church was the focus of the book trade in Oxford in the 13th century. Braile's signature includes the image of a man with a tonsure , but without a monk habit , so he was probably a typist of a minor order. His wife Celena is mentioned in one of the documents. Brailes and his helpers illustrated about a dozen surviving books, including several Bibles, a psalter, a collection of illustrated sheets that presumably originally belonged to two psalters, and the oldest surviving fully illustrated English book of hours. Several artists were working on one work at the same time, as these were illustrated in different styles. The ornate extensions of initials were characteristic of the Brailes workshop, mostly using muted colors such as blue, brown and dark pink tones. The decoration of these manuscripts contains full-page pictures, most of which depict scenes from the Old and New Testaments, as well as artistically designed initials and colorful fill lines that occasionally depict mammals, birds and fish.

The murals on the ceiling of the Chapter House of Christ Church Cathedral , showing the four apostles and angels, painted by the style of Brailes. Either he occasionally worked as a wall painter or he at least created the templates for the paintings.

literature

  • Claire Donovan: The de Brailes hours. Shaping the Book of hours in thirteenth-century Oxford. University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1991. ISBN 0-8020-5951-1
  • Sidney C. Cockerell: The Work of W. de Brailes, an English Illuminator of the Thirteenth Century . 1930

Web links

Commons : William de Brailes  - Collection of images, videos and audio files