The Use of Sarum Book of Hours: Beautiful 14th-Century English Illuminations

A Model for Artists Today

I was recently made aware of this remarkable collection of English medieval illuminations through Hilary White’s Sacred Images Project Substack, and I was immediately struck by the quality of the draftsmanship. Looking at these images, it became clear to me that these are among the finest models I have encountered for artists who wish to learn to draw and paint in a style appropriate for the renewal of sacred art in our own time.

The Annunciation

The Sarum Use and Its Living Descendants

Before turning to the images themselves, it is worth pausing to consider what this Psalter actually is - it is significant in a way that resonates today. 

The Sarum Use was a distinctly English form of the Roman Rite, developed at Salisbury and prevalent across much of England throughout the medieval period, right up to the Reformation. This particular Psalter belongs to that tradition. 

This gives these illuminations a particular resonance with Christians in the Anglo-American world. The Psalter from the Book of Common Prayer, called the Coverdale Psalter - after Miles Coverdale, who translated the text into English in the 16th century - is a liturgical descendant of the Sarum Use of the Roman Rite. It is the Psalter that generations of Anglicans have prayed, and which continues to be prayed today. It is approved for use by Catholics (in the 1928 revision used by the Anglican Ordinariates), Orthodox, and many Protestant denominations. All share a living connection to the liturgical world that produced the images shown here. To look at this Psalter is, for many of these Christians, to encounter a visual companion of their contemporary daily worship.

Woman and Bishop (identities unkown)

The School of St Albans — Broadly Understood

I have referred in the past to the tradition these images represent as the School of St Albans, though I use that phrase in a more generic sense than art historians might. Strictly speaking, the School of St Albans refers to the English illumination of the early Gothic and late Romanesque period, particularly the work of the 13th-century monk Matthew Paris, who worked at St Albans Abbey. His style can be seen in manuscripts such as the Westminster Psalter and in the wall paintings that still survive in English churches.

This Psalter was likely not produced at St Albans; it comes from elsewhere in England. The Cambridge Digital Library, which provided the images, suggests that it is likely somewhere in southeast England, either Lincoln or East Anglia. But it still contains the essential elements of the style as I have described it: the primacy of line in describing form, a limited palette, and an emphasis on flat coloration rather than blended tonal modeling. Whether we call it the School of St Albans or simply the English medieval tradition, this manuscript is a full expression of it!

These limitations in stylistic features, which distinguish it from naturalistic forms of art, are its strength. As a result, the style sidesteps what I consider the blight of so much modern sacred art: sentimentality. When you cannot render every gradation of light and shadow, you are forced to think clearly about form, about meaning, and about what is essential. Line demands clarity, while tonal naturalism invites sentiment. The School of St Albans offers artists today a discipline that might hold sentimentality at bay!

St Catherine and St Margaret

What to Notice in These Images

As you look at these beautiful reproductions from the Psalter, there a couple of points I would make:.

Consistent with the broader Western tradition of sacred art, there is a heavy emphasis on beautiful, ornate patterns in the borders, backgrounds, and across the surface of the image. This richly ornamented flatness is distinct from what we encounter in much contemporary Byzantine iconography, for example, which tends toward greater austerity in those areas that could be decorated.

St George

At the same time - and here is an example of how the English tradition converges with the Byzantine - the content follows traditional customs. Notice, for example, how the Nativity is depicted. St Joseph is portrayed as significantly older than Our Lady: by tradition, he was a widower, and is depicted in imagery as set apart from the Virgin and Child in the Nativity. This deliberate distancing signals his temporary doubt about the Virgin Birth. Contemporary depictions of St Joseph in the Roman church, on the other hand, tend to portray him as a young and vigorous man.

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Learn Wall Painting in the Gothic Style of Matthew Paris and the School of St Albans

Artists, This Will Equip You To Get Commissions

Here is a recommendation for painters: if you want to get commissions, you need more than the ability to supply individual paintings in your chosen style. You need to be able to paint walls. My recommendation for style in contemporary churches is a new manifestation of the School of St Albans. Read more about why here.

Virgin and Child, by Matthew Paris, English, 13th century. The artist has included himself venerating the Mother of God and adoring Christ

And here’s a recommendation for patrons, those choosing and paying for art for churches: if you want to have an impact on the liturgical engagement of your congregations through art – something which is vital for the revival of Catholic culture – the most cost-effective way is to introduce a planned full schema of art, floor to ceiling, on the apse or back walls of the sanctuary. Ideally, this would be like the iconostasis in a Byzantine church, except as a wall painting behind the altar.

Fresco by Martin Earle, English, 21st century

Artists can now learn how to do this by taking the Writing the Light wall painting program and icon drawing program under Master iconographer George Kordis. This is a two-year, part-time hybrid program (a combination of online and in-person workshops) – see a recent post about it here. The program focuses on the Greek style of iconography, but students who want to make the School of St Albans style their own should supplement it with personal study of past works by artists such as Matthew Paris. The key is to imitate that style until it becomes your natural artistic expression. This process of copying with understanding is how, for example, artists of the High Renaissance such as Michelangelo and Raphael made the ancient Greek ideal their own. They systematically copied Greek and Roman statues as part of their training, as well as drawing and painting from life. So artists who wish to make the Gothic style their own should learn the skills of their craft – Writing the Light will teach them this – as they study both from life and works of past Masters in the Gothic style. It will need students with ability and drive initially, but it is most certainly possible.

Patrons, another challenge for you: consider sponsoring a talented artist from your church to develop these skills through Writing the Light. You can read more at WritingtheLight.com.

What is the School of St Albans?

The School of St Albans is the style of English illumination in the late Romanesque and early Gothic period, particularly the work of the 13th-century monk Matthew Paris, based at St Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire, England. The style can be seen in manuscripts like the Westminster Psalter and in wall paintings that still survive in English churches.

This is a style that relies on the description of form with line, and is restrained in its use of tonal and color variation. These limitations help eliminate the sentimentality of naturalism, which is the blight of so many modern artists.

True to the Gothic spirit, by which classical sources were integrated into cultural expressions. Paris drew and painted not only sacred art for books like psalters and illustrations of the lives of saints, but also figures such as Plato and Socrates. He was also influenced by the renewed interest in the philosophy of Aristotle, and thus a keen observer of nature who drew many studies of plants and animals.

Why the School of St Albans?

When in discussing the reestablishment of beautiful sacred art in the Roman Catholic Church, part of what we have to think about is choosing a style from the past and using it as a starting point from which it is believed a characteristic style for today will emerge. Some look at the Baroque, some at iconography. My thought is that we look at this period. The suggestion for the name of the art of this period – the School of St Albans – originally came from a student in a class of mine over 10 years ago now.

My experience as a teacher is that Roman Catholics do seem to take to this style naturally and make it their own, even in a single class. You can see the work my students did in a past week-long workshop several years ago in this blog post.

When we studied images from this period, the students engaged with them much more readily – they liked them more than Eastern icons and seemed to understand them more instinctively. As a result, some quickly developed a feel for what they could change without straying outside the tradition they were working in. In contrast, most who had not seen it before found the style of Eastern icons slightly alien. In iconography classes, they had no instinctive sense of what they could change while remaining within the tradition. This meant we had to copy rigorously to avoid introducing errors. It was a bit like learning words in a language by rote, without understanding their meaning. This is not always such a bad thing – copying with understanding is an essential part of learning art – but at some point the student must apply his understanding in new ways. This latter point seemed to be reached more quickly by these Roman Catholic students when working in the Gothic style than in the iconographic style.

Can This Style Work on a Large Scale?

The style will be most familiar to readers as seen in illuminated manuscripts by Matthew Paris; generally, these are miniatures. Some have questioned whether this style would work on a large scale. I have always thought that it could be adapted to work on the walls of modern churches.

Original medieval wall paintings have been uncovered at St Albans Cathedral. I made a trip there to see them in 2018. The paintings are pale, but as we can see, they are done on a large scale and follow this same basic style – form described by line, with simple coloration. The photographs include St Amphibalus (a convert of St Alban) baptizing converts – note full immersion! – and Euclid and Herman the Dalmatian (a medieval philosopher), above.

Whether or not you are convinced that it is right to use this style today, we can certainly conclude that the artists of the period considered it appropriate for floor-to-ceiling frescoes (this church has a high ceiling). I would encourage patrons and artists to look at these and think about how they could reproduce this style in our churches. I think that it allows for large areas to be covered relatively easily and appropriately.

St Francis of Assisi: Illuminations by Matthew Paris

I recently visited an exhibition at the National Gallery in London that focused on art relating to St Francis of Assisi. In the course of the next few weeks, some of my posts will show what was featured there. There were some excellent examples of traditional art, ranging from Italo-Byzantine to Gothic to Baroque, and just for comparison, as the dissonant chord that makes harmony all the more sweet, some truly awful modern images. The contemporary artists seemed more intent on undermining the Faith and trying to push it into a contemporary box of leftist or relativist dogma, rather than revealing Truth (more on those later in the series).

This week, however, something good!

There was a manuscript of a world history, the Chronica maiora of Matthew Paris, with illustrations of St Francis and a six-winged seraph, exquisite tainted pen drawings in the style of the 13th-century English school of St Albans, of which he was the pre-eminent exponent.

The above are in fact reproductions of illustrations drawn in the margin of the book, the originals of which are tiny!

There are two volumes of this history, which focuses, as one might expect, on Church history as a crucial aspect of world history (in contrast to the approach to history of many contemporary historians, who tend to write the prism of woke, neo-Marxist ideology).

The chronicle normally resides in the Parker Library and Corpus Christi College Cambridge. The library website contains the following description:

Matthew Paris OSB (c. 1200-59), a Benedictine monk of St Albans Abbey, was their official chronicler who wrote chronicles covering both world history and British history. These two volumes are of his most important work, the Chronica maiora, covering world history, but with a particular emphasis on that of Britain - vol I is CCCC MS 26 and vol II is CCCC MS 16, their production dating to the period c. 1240-55. Matthew was also a talented artist who was both scribe and illustrator of his own chronicles. These volumes have coloured marginal drawings, and also signs and heraldic shields in the borders signifying the persons and incidents in their lives, and also signifying their deaths, set beside the text passages mentioning these events. Recently, in 2003, the prefatory section to MS 16 (ff. i recto - v verso), containing lists and genealogies of kings, a diagram of the winds, itineraries, maps, and the picture of the elephant given by Louis IX to Henry III, has been bound separately as MS 16I. The part containing the chronicle text itself, ff. 1v-282r, has been rebound as MS 16II.

I wonder at the control that the 13th-century artist had when working on such a small scale. He must have had exceptional eyesight to work without the aid of optical devices and modern lighting systems. I speak as one who at 61 years old, would struggle to match it with something twice the size, even with the best reading spectacles, magnifying glasses and electric spot lamps!

Instructional Resources for Catholic Icon Painters: The Icon Painter's Handbook and the online Academy Course

A fully online and remote formation for icon painters, by a British master iconographer

I am pleased to recommend to our readers The Icon Painter’s Handbook by Ian Knowles, which is available here and here Ian is a English Catholic icon painter with many commissions under his belt, and a former student of Aidan Hart. He produces this book with the blessing of his former teacher, who contributed the Foreword. As a good student of Mr Hart, one of the foremost Orthodox iconographers in the English speaking world, Ian has excellent technique and understanding of the tradition. Also, incidentally, in the manner of his former teacher, he refers to icon “painting”, and does not conform to what began as an affectation and has become a contemporary fashion in the English speaking world, that of referring to the process as “writing”!

This book can be used by itself, or in conjunction with the first and foundational module of Ian’s excellent four-module online icon-painting course, which offers a full formation in iconography, the Academy Course in Icon Painting. This offers regular real-time online meetings with Ian and other students for questions and discussion, as well as a full set of recorded videos and materials.

I asked him if this full formation is available to those living in America. He told me, “Yes! The online programme is done remotely and at different levels. First there are the four modules, all now recorded and available. Purchased once with lifetime access. Then there is the Academy, which is open to all those students for mutual support etc., with a monthly lecture program, and then email critiques, one-on-one tutorials via Zoom, and weekly tutorial groups via Zoom, of which we have one comprising of four students from the USA and who would welcome new members.”

At nearly 300 pages, this is just Volume 1 of a proposed four-volume set, covering all the introductory principles of drawing, painting and understanding what icons are. Once you get to the end of this course, it will equip the more resourceful to continue self-directed study, applying the principles to other subjects. Otherwise, you can sign on to the online courses that Ian offers through the Academy Course. 

This book is available in hard-back, in pdf, or as an interactive, electronic flipbook in which there are embedded demonstration videos. You can follow this link: www.eliasicons.co.uk/icon-painters-handbook to see a more detailed description of the content, and even see how a flipbook works! It is more than a simple paint-an-icon sort of book, but it is designed to help in the formation of an iconographer as painter of sacred art. Theology and spirituality are integrated into practice, fundamental principles into precise artistic skills and as such it is Catholic friendly.

After leaving the studio of Aidan Hart, Ian started to take commissions and taught icon painting for several years as the head of the Bethlehem Icon Centre, which he founded and led (and which was endorsed by the local Melkite Church, as well as the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts). Some readers may remember that I wrote about this at the time. An article about Ian and his school appeared in the Jerusalem Post here.

After the chaos of Covid, Ian returned to the UK and started to offer workshops there. In parallel with the in-person teaching, he recorded videos. All four modules of this full formation are now recorded and available. The book accompanies the first module. 

In his foreword Aidan writes of the book and Knowle’s teaching: “Ian Knowles has drawn on his experience as an icon painter and teacher to assemble this beautifully designed Icon Painter’s Handbook, and in so doing has made an important contribution towards increasing the skill of icon painters in the West, both experienced and learners. This thoroughly revised edition incorporates refinements suggested by his teaching, as well as a thorough knowledge of the icon's theological tradition.”

Examples of his work follow.

Interestingly, in recent years, Ian has been working on the development of what he feels can be a contemporary English style, and his starting point for this is the work of Matthew Paris, the 13th-century Gothic illuminator from the School of St Albans. You can see examples of how Ian has approached this on his website. This is something that I have been doing myself and writing about for about 10 years now - here is a past NLM article in which I make the case for this, and another here. Ian and I reached the conclusion about the value of Paris’ work today quite independently but I am glad that the “movement” is beginning to gain momentum. A number of the plates I painted for the Little Oratory were based on the 13th-century Westminster Psalter, the illuminations of which come out of this Gothic school.

As I explain in the second of the articles linked above, I think neo-English Gothic is particularly appropriate for the Anglo-American Catholic Church in general (and not just the English Church), most especially for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham churches... so perhaps you might like to look at Ian’s work and consider some commissions!

The Divine Is In the Detail

One of the things that characterized the medieval Gothic style was a theologically driven attention to detail. The Gothic mason not only wanted those details that people could see to be beautiful and structurally sound, but also the hidden structural details of the buttresses, for example, would be created according to principles of harmonic proportion. It would not occur to the illuminator or mason not to create even the smallest or hidden aspect beautifully, for to the Gothic artist, beauty had a utility. Beauty is the outward sign that a thing is suited to its purpose, and that that purpose is good. When we behold it, it’s influence is to direct our spirits to God. To create beautiful art elevates the work of the artist to a virtue that benefits the artist, who is content to try to please God with his work, as well as anyone who sees his art, to the degree that it is good and beautiful.

Shrewsbury Catholic Cathedral in Shropshire, England, has been undergoing a renovation under the patronage of Bishop Mark Davies. This is a 19th century, Puginesque English Gothic style; an article on the restoration in process, with comments by Fr Edmund Montgomery, the cathedral administrator, was published here at the end of March.

In the spirit of this Gothic love of detail, a piece of embroidered art in the style of the School of St Albans - that is, 21st-century English Gothic - is to be displayed permanently at Shrewsbury Cathedral. The piece will be framed and hung in the confessional on the priest’s side at the request of Fr Edmund. Stylistically, this is fully in keeping with the overall artistic schema of the cathedral.

The creator of this piece, Alix Murray, lives in Shrewsbury, and tells me that she was inspired by images from St Albans Psalter and the Bury Bible made in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England, both of the 12th century. She is a student of Pontifex University’s Master of Sacred Arts program.

Here is a picture of the interior of the cathedral.

This is the second piece of work to come out of a collaboration of PU students via a student Facebook group. I have had no personal input in this group - the ideas are generated amongst themselves. We showed a similar embroidered image by another PU student, Kathryn Laffrey, was published a few weeks ago, which resulted in her getting a commission for an embroidered chalice pall from an American cathedral.

Alix told me:

Our agreement was to use the materials we had available to us. I used a bedsheet for the canvas and embroidery floss (untangled with tremendous effort) from my daughters’ craft drawer. In the end, I had to order more floss as I was so limited for colours. I was inspired by two 12-century English illuminated manuscripts and the homeschooling group I am a member of is trying to organize a British history curriculum, so I used particularly English Catholic sources as my inspiration.

There is a saying that the devil is in the detail. However, if we care to make it so, the divine can be in the detail too. This is a detail that will be seen by only the priests in confessional. It’s potential for spiritual impact, without the glorification of the artist, is great. The influence of its beauty first on the confessor, and then in turn, indirectly, on the penitent, has the potential to affect many for the good in the diocese. Beauty will save the world!

Here is an original illumination from the Bury Bible created by an artist known as Master Hugo.

Paintings from the School of St Albans...on the Walls of St Albans Cathedral

An Artistic Pilgrimage

This summer, when visiting England and staying in London, I decided to take the short drive up to see St Albans Cathedral. The main structure was originally built in Norman times, and so would have been Romanesque, but the modern appearance is largely Gothic. There have been several renovations over the centuries, included a partial rebuilding after an earthquake in 1250 - not a common occurrence in England!

In some ways, one might even think of this as a sort of artistic pilgrimage. Readers will know that I have suggested that the style of a 13th-century monk based at St Albans, Matthew Paris, is one that I think could be the basis of a liturgical style for today. I have called this style The School of St Albans; the suggestion originally came from a student in a class of mine. My experience as a teacher is that Roman Catholics do seem to take to this style naturally, and make it their own even in a single class. You can see work done by my students in a week-long workshop in a past blog post here.

True to the Gothic spirit, Paris drew and painted not only sacred art for books like psalters, but also illustrations of Saints that were probably not made as a focus of prayer, and also include figures like  Plato and Socrates, with plants and animals around them.

St Amphibalus, (a convert of St Albans), baptizing converts - note full immersion!

Euclid and Herman the Dalmatian (a medieval philosopher)

This is a style which relies on the description of form with line, and which is restrained in its use of tonal and color variation. These limitations will help to eliminate the sentimentality from their naturalism that is the blight of so many modern artists.

I have only seen illuminated manuscripts by Paris, and generally, they are miniatures. Some have questioned whether or not this style would work on a large scale. I have always thought that it could be adapted to work on the walls of modern churches. So, when I had heard that there are some original medieval wall paintings that have been uncovered at St Albans Cathedral, I very much wanted to see them in order to get a sense of their scale, and to make a sort of pilgrimage to the place that nurtured such a great, and largely unsung, artist in the 13th century.

With these things in mind, I entered the cathedral. After a quick prayer for the peaceful return of stolen property to the Church, I stepped inside.

The paintings are pale, but as we can see, done on a large scale and according to this same basic style - form described by line, with simple coloration. Whether or not you are convinced that it is right to use this style today, we can certainly conclude that the artists of the period felt that it was appropriate for floor-to-ceiling frescoes, this church has a high ceiling). I would encourage patrons and artists to look at these and think about how they could reproduce this style in our churches. I think that it allows for large areas to be covered relatively easily and appropriately:

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