Article
French
ID: <
10670/1.bnz76t>
Abstract
In a previous spectrophotometric study of the enluminures of a 19th century manuscript attributed to the Maître de Boucicaut, we identified a red colour used in lacquer which did not correspond to those most commonly cited by researchers. Under the name ‘Brazilian’, however, it was well documented in the revenue collections of the Middle Age. The recipes of Brazilian given in these collections vary, both in the manufacturing processes and in the ingredients mentioned. Drawing inspiration from some of them, we undertook the laboratory production of different samples of Brazilian lacquers. Each lacquer, applied in glacis or opaque layer, has been subjected to a set of measurements to assess the influence of the various constituents on spectral and colorimetric data. These measurements were compared with new measurements on the enlightenings of a manuscript kept at the municipal library of Châteauroux, which gave us the opportunity to extend the scope of the study to two other enlighters in the same period, the Bedford Maître and the Orose Master. Our results show that all employed Brazilian. Our study thus attests to the importance of this dye in the Paris workshops in the years 1400-1420.