Colour: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts review – a rainbow of agony and ecstasy

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
They may look like props from a Harry Potter film, but the manuscripts in this sumptuous show are expressionist art, as full of emotion as a Van Gogh painting

• Everything is illuminated: medieval manuscripts – in pictures

Imagine how it felt to be one of the last illuminators, a trained miniaturist still painting exquisite images in blue and gold, with your pots of ground cinnabar and antimony, in precious handwritten books as the printing press revolutionised Europe 500 years ago. Your craft was redundant now that German printers could pump out hundreds of Albrecht Dürer woodcuts or Martin Luther pamphlets in the time it took you to paint one letter A.

Related: Unveiled: Adam and Eve naked again after centuries-old cover-up

Related: Everything is illuminated: the wonder of medieval manuscripts – in pictures

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