70 State of Painting from the Reign of 



ages of fcripture ; and the gold and colours 

 are of the greateft brightnefs and beauty. 

 Several receipts for laying thefe on are ex- 

 tant, particularly in the Britifli Mufeum f . 

 Dugdale from forne of thefe illuminations 

 has given cuts of two remarkable combats 

 or tournaments performed in the 15th year 

 of king Henry VI. j: in which the defigns 

 are far from unworthy of a better age \ and 

 the cufloms and habits delineated with great 

 accuracy. 



Henry himfelf, I fuppofe, had no talle 

 for the arts — the turbulent ambition of his 

 queen left her as little — yet fhe was the 

 daughter of a prince, who was not only 

 reckoned the beft painter of his age, but 

 who would really appear no mean performer 

 in the prefent : This was Rene of Anjou, 

 king of the two Sicilies, duke of Lorrain 



f See Catal. Harl. MSS. No. 273. art. 34, where is 

 alfo a receipt for painting on glafs. In that colle6lion 

 is a MS. in which Henry VJ. is reprefented looking 

 out of a window in the tower. In Dufrefne's Greek 

 Glofiary are three receipts for illuminating under the 

 article x^^^^y^"-^*"- There are two others in Montfau- 

 con's Palaeographia Graeca. 



X See Warwickftiire, p. 1 1 o, 



and 



