Breviary of the Basel convent of Steinen
A illuminated breviary, a book of daily prayers and psalms, made around 1450 for the Steinen convent of Basel, and kept today in the e-codices digital library of Switzerland. The pictures are hand-painted miniatures in bright opaque colour with gold, set in plain framed panels, with figures in soft outline and flat backgrounds of patterned tiles, brick walls and gardens. A designer could take from them the compact narrative grouping of scenes, the saturated palette of blue, green and vermilion, and the decorative use of pattern in backgrounds.
