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Manuscript Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers

Chronolgy

The Limbourgs were born in Guelderland, and were nephews of the court painter Jean Malouel.

Pol, the eldest, probably born ca. 1380.

John and Herman, listed as orphans, were recorded as being in Paris in 1398, apprenticed by their uncle to a Flemish goldsmith. Ordered by Philip the Bold to leave Paris to escape the plague, they were taken prisoners of war in Brussels while en route to their home in Guelders. They were bailed out by the painters and goldsmiths of Brussels, out of respect for their uncle. But WHERE WAS POL? Many think he may have traveled to northern Italy, but there is no conclusive proof.

Sometime after 1404 (death of Philip the Bold), the three brothers enter service of Jean de Berri and work for him until his death (and that of Pol) in 1416.(Jean and Herman lived until 1434).

The Très Riches Heures [Images]

Jean de Berri's Très riches heures (i.e., "Very Precious Hours", also called "The Hours of Chantilly", now in library at Chantilly).

Commissioned by the duke of Berri ca. 1413, left unfinished at his death in 1416. Sixty-five of the best illustrations by three Dutch-born brothers, Jehanniquin (Jean or John), Pol (Paul), and Herman de Limbourg. The rest painted ca. 1485 by Jean Colombe.

One of the duke's 88 commissioned MSS, but one of his very favorites.

Like every Book of Hours (portable and personal prayerbook, similar but not identical to a modern catholic missal), it sets forth a fixed scheme of devotions for each of the eight canonical hours of the day (Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, Nones, Vespers, Compline), with a miniature to introduce each. The Hours of the Virgin feature miniatures illustrating scenes from Christ's infancy; the Hours of the Cross have those from Christ's Passion. In addition there are included the Office of the Dead, suffrages to various saints, etc.

The Très riches heures is particularly notable for its fully illustrated Calendar -- a full page illustration for each month of the year, with its proper signs of the Zodiac, and in many cases a custom-tailored landscape setting featuring one of the 17 chateaux belonging to the duke and/or his brother the French king. Foregrounded in each case is the proper "labor" of the month, e.g.:

  • January = feasting, not very laborious
  • February = warming oneself by the fire
  • March = pruning and plowing
  • April= getting engaged
  • May = "riding out" in the forest with one's lady
  • June = haymaking (in the middle of Paris!)
  • July =sheep-shearing, wheat harvest
  • August = falconry
  • September; NOT by the brothers = vintage)
  • October = fall plowing and sowing (in front of the Louvre!)
  • November NOT by the brothers = herding pigs
  • December = killing the wild boar.

[Note that the peasants do all the actual labors, while the nobility do all the fun stuff.]

Equally beguiling are the many INSERTS in this ms., pictures not normally found in a book of hours: a map of Rome; an "anatomical (astrological) man," a Garden of Eden; a "meeting of the Magi"; fall of the rebel angels. etc.

  • In Kohler Library, see the facsimile edition of this manuscript, and/or Meiss, both on Reserve.