*4.3. Comparison with Coeval Manuscripts*

It is interesting to note that a relatively similar palette was characterised by Melo et al. [25] in their analysis of three French 15th century *Book of Hours* presently in the Palacio Nacional de Mafra (Portugal). This information may support art historians in interpreting the context of production for these manuscripts and to (possibly) link other artworks to the production of Antoine de Lonhy.

### **5. Conclusions**

The present work represents the first step towards the disclosure of materials and techniques employed by Antoine de Lonhy in the course of his artistic activity and it integrates the studies on style and iconography already carried out about the work of this versatile medieval artist. Further to this, the instrumental inspection of the untouched parts of the miniatures allowed us to recognise the colourants originally used by the master, and to highlight the criteria that he used for selecting a specific pigment. This choice appears not merely bound to technical or aesthetic reasons, since specific pigments were selected for specific parts in the miniatures. In particular, a hierarchical scheme is identifiable for yellows and partially for reds, while in the case of blues the colourant choice seems to be led by difference instances. Of course, the hierarchy of the colourants within this work offers only a partial view of what the *modus operandi* of the artist was.

The shine of gold is that of mosaic gold, while shell gold was used to paint objects and details that are somehow connected to characters whose sacredness required the use of the finest materials. As a whole, four different yellow colourants were hierarchically employed within the miniatures.

Vermilion was used to paint the stray of acanthus, strawberries and flowers in decorations on page borders (possibly by an associate of de Lonhy), while in the miniatures its use was reserved to the blood of Jesus Christ, in order to emphasise the sanctity of this detail, while less valuable red lead was used to obtain reds throughout the miniatures.

Another peculiarity concerns the use of lead-tin yellow; this pigment was largely used in all the miniatures to tune green colours. Only in one case was it used by itself, i.e., to paint the vest of the old apostle, probably St. Peter, praying in the left part of the miniature on f. 49v. It is possible that this specific use is linked to the identity of this important character.

The overall analytical results indicated that the palette used to paint the decorations bordering each page differs substantially from that used in the miniatures.

It is known that the painter who executed the miniatures generally did not work on other decorations on the page, but this investigation has also pointed out that different pigments could be used in the different stages of the decoration of the manuscript.

All in all, the palette chosen by the artist for the decoration of the ten miniatures, including the precious colourants such as gold, lapis lazuli and cinnabar, indicates the importance and credit of this work.

The investigation also gave information on the materials used for retouches. In particular, phthalocyanine blue, in use since 1935, and titanium white, also introduced during the 20th century, were found in the illumination on f. 31v, thus setting a *post quem* terminus for some of the coarse interventions clearly visible in the manuscript. Moreover, the presence of different materials would exclude, as suggested by autoptic inspection of the book, that the retouches could have been performed by the same hand.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualisation, M.A. and M.G.; methodology, A.A.; software, E.P.; validation, A.A. and M.G.; formal analysis, A.A.; investigation, M.A., E.P. and A.A.; resources, S.C.; data curation, M.G.; writing—original draft preparation, M.A. and M.G.; writing—review and editing, S.C. and G.S.; visualisation, A.A.; supervision, M.G.; project administration, M.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors would like to thank Enrica Pagella of the Museo Civico di Arte Antica in Torino, for allowing thorough inspection of the manuscript.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
