“Design” in space) is to run a zigzag line along it (c). This
Illumination may be treated either as a line or wavy stem, which
may send out buds, leaves, or flowers into the spaces
(g), or as two series of triangles which may be
“countercharged” (f).1 A second zigzag, cutting
the first, would produce two series of triangles
and a central row of lozenges (d). And it is not
a very great step from this to the “twist” where
the two lines pass over and under, the lines
being made “solid” in white or gold on a coloured
background (e, fig. 130). The main difference
appears to be that while the one is of the nature
of an abstract form, the other suggests a concrete
form, such as might be made with twisted cords or
rods.

These primitive patterns never become anti¬
quated; they are still the root forms of “design,”
and the pleasant even covering of a given space by
simple elements—which is their metier—accounts
for much of the unconscious pleasure which we
take in good bricklaying or sewing or writing, and
in a thousand things, where '''’many Utiles make a
mickle.”

For their decorative possibilities in Illumination
we can experiment in the most delightful way—
framing our writing with bands of countercharged
triangles in burnished gold, and blue and white, or
with golden zigzags on a blue ground, or chequering
backgrounds with scarlet and blue, and trying a
hundred and one other ways (p. 163). Such patterns
have been made the most of in Heraldry, an art

1 If the triangles were countercharged in colour and colour
—e.g. red and blue—the zigzag would be made white, black, or
gold, to separate and harmonise the colours (see pp. 148-9).

I82

:*;(<*) & (b)only
from the
" Durham
Book/'

ІкЩКІііі(<0 Ш

i; parr/of ЪапЪ*of ц-У»\Y;v >

І! ‘ dotted 'огты mentt tv

bearing- letters (= botte backgrounds)

ІАЛЛЛ ШХХХ

Simple modes of filmer л bebt or bdtiçi
if/ГUne ornament à (с.) (4.) (e-)

countercharged (f) floral pattern (%■)

OM (TÖ
Ckemurs

&¿*dviver$'

("*•) (n-I

BLL'MtNTARïC
■pATrfcRNS Sef¬
li SED Ш S1MP1E PICORfflOfl

Fig. 130.

“Design” in
Illumination

183