4.1.3. The Use of Yellows

The choice of yellow pigments is perhaps the most remarkable from the hierarchical point of view. Antoine de Lonhy used five different pigments for this colour: shell gold, gold leaf, mosaic gold, lead-tin yellow type I and yellow ochre. Examples are reported in Figure 14.

**Figure 14.** Examples of use of yellow pigments in the *Book of Hours*. <sup>◻</sup>: mosaic gold;∎: lead-tin yellow type I; -: gold leaf; •: shell gold; : yellow ochre. (**a**) f. 15r, *Visitation*. (**b**) f. 46r, *Crucifixion*. (**c**) f. 49v, *Pentecost*.

Shell gold was of course the most expensive of the set. It was used by Antoine de Lonhy to paint various details in the miniatures, such as the bench that holds Christ and God the Father in the miniature depicting the *Coronation of the Virgin* on f. 42r (Figure 1g), as well as the garments of some characters: examples are Saint Elisabeth's tunic on f. 15r and the tunic of the apostle sitting on the right hand of the Virgin as well as the mantle of the apostle on the right part of the picture in the miniature depicting the *Pentecost* on f. 49r. Apparently, the painter chose the precious shell gold here in order to stress the relevance of the characters who deserve the most precious materials.

Lead-tin yellow type I or *giallolino* was considered quite valuable: its cost could be double that of orpiment [34] (pp. 151–152) and was much more than the various types of yellow ochres. Despite this, in the *Book of Hours* lead-tin yellow was used mostly in a mixture with a green copper pigment (see Section 3.4) to modify its tonality but rarely as pure yellow pigment, perhaps only for the coat of an apostle, probably St. Peter, praying in the left part of the miniature in the *Pentecost* on f. 49v. The fact that this pigment was reserved for this specific apostle would suggest an intentional use somehow linked to the identity of the character. In fact, St. Peter is an important apostle because it was to him that Christ entrusted the keys of heaven.

It is difficult to estimate the ranking of mosaic gold. Nash [34] does not report information for this synthetic pigment. A reference [37] can be found in a *Taxa*, i.e., a price list, issued in 1568 in the town of Liegnitz (Silesia, Poland) in which *Aurum musicum* (mosaic gold) is cited among the most expensive *Colores* or materials for painting, with a price 6 times that of *Aurum pigmentum* (orpiment), 12 times that of *Bley gelb* (lead-tin yellow or massicot) and 12 times that of *Ocker gelb* (yellow ochre). N. Turner, in her commentary study on Johannes Alcherius [38], suggested that mosaic gold, rather than being used by illuminators as an inexpensive substitute for gold leaf and shell gold, could have been used alongside them to expand the range of golden hues. In the *Book of Hours* considered here, mosaic gold was used to paint secondary subjects such as the rocks in the background on ff. 15r and 28v (Figure 1b,d), or the straw roof of the hut of the Nativity in the illuminations on ff. 24r and 31v (Figure 1c,e). Only one instance was found where shell gold had been used instead of the less precious mosaic gold, i.e., the rocks in the background of the illumination depicting the Virgin and the infant Jesus in the run to Egypt (f. 36v, Figure 1f), in order to highlight these details.

Last in ranking were the yellow ochres, which are by far the cheapest pigments in the lists reported by Nash [34] (pp. 155–157). Examples of their use are the inner part of the aedicule on f. 1r (Figure 1a) and the Cross and the ground of the Golgotha in the *Crucifixion* on f. 46r (Figure 1h).
