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15— Contrasts and Continuities
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Differences in the Programs of Illustrations

In various ways the programs of illustrations of B and D also reflect the greater attention devoted to the text of the Politics . To be sure, the density of illustration—one miniature at the beginning of each of the eight books of the Politiques and the two of the Yconomique —is the same as that of the Ethiques . Yet in terms of scale, the illustrations of B are larger than those of A , its sister manuscript. In B the miniatures occupy about half the height and the entire width of the folio. Furthermore, B and D have bifolio frontispieces and another miniature of full-page dimensions. The rest of the illustrations of B and D are no longer confined to a column format, as are nine of the eleven miniatures in A . The limiting quadrilobe frame appears only in four text illustrations in B and three in D . Also more complex in B and D than in A and C are the visual structures of the miniatures. Only one miniature of the Ethiques cycle in C (Fig. 41) includes the three-register format adopted in two illustrations of the Politiques . Also, A and C offer only two instances of the two-register type (Figs. 7, 10, 24, and 29), in which the relationships between the upper and lower zones are less complex than the three examples in B and D . The latter also offer two unusual examples of single-register scenes that occupy the width of the text block and produce the effect of panel paintings (Figs. 70, 71, 80, and 81).


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15— Contrasts and Continuities
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