croix bouletées

16:31 Aug 23, 2017 

the *form* (i.e., specific type) of the cross is an iconographic element, not a stylistic one --though the manner in which these crosses were created (on the page) involves questions of "style" (and, thus, distinctions which might be made between the "hands" which created them).

Sounds like your author is pretty Deep into the Weeds of trying to unravel issues of workshop organization, using both iconographic and "formal" (i.e., stylistic) criteria.

This is, typically, the kind of meticulous detail that manuscript specialists are noted for, and the best of them perform the task with quite astonishing virtuosity.

10:58 Aug 23, 2017 

Yes, I'm aware of all of that. I'm talking about the motif.

09:57 Aug 23, 2017 

It isn't one cross, it's a decorative motif that would have been used repeatedly in decorating the borders and initials of manuscripts. Each decorative artist had his own signature style, which can be used to distinguish the various hands that were employed in the completed work. These were not the people who painted the miniatures, who were much more elevated in the hierarchy of the workshop, or even the Master himself.

23:05 Aug 22, 2017 

Yes, that was one of my original two suggestions. I withdrew the suggestions, because I think the cross may well have these boules on its surface, rather than as terminals. There's probably no chance of you getting an image, but it would clarify things. Anyway, I was thinking a variety of terminals, but this, I believe, is about décor.

23:00 Aug 22, 2017 

I note you posted a discussion entry that you later withdrew. Fortunately, I read the email and though the cross you suggested isn't appropriate, the reference you posted also includes: "A cross with the ends of the arms bottony (or botonny, i.e. "furnished with knobs or buttons"), i.e. shaped like a trefoil—and so it is sometimes called a cross trefly. In early armory it is not always distinguished from a cross crosslet."

I rather like the idea of "the decorative artist of crosses with knobs on".

16:30 Aug 22, 2017 

I prefer Liz's "beaded".

16:21 Aug 22, 2017 

I think you've answered your own question. You haven't given the French context, but if you need to give him a name, it's common practice to say something like The Ornamentalist of the Bossed Crosses. Otherwise, you could just describe him as "the artist who painted the crosses with bossed arms".