LIMBOURG brothers (Herman, Jean, Paul)

The very small manuscript, Les Petites Heurs du Duc Jean de Berry by its modern title, is one of the surviving six books from the great collection of Duc de Berry (1340-1416), one of the four sons of King John II of France. The oldest part of this book, the Passion of Christ, was illuminated in Paris between 1372 and 1375 by Jean Le Noir, one of Pucelle’s pupils. Some years later the manuscript was completed by the Duke’s outstanding new court painter, Jacquemart de Hesdin. One miniature by Jean de Limbourg was added later, probably in 1410-12, after the book had been completed.

The miniature by Jean de Limbourg is on folio 288v. It shows Duc Jean de Berry leaving a city gate as he sets out on a journey on foot. The aging, white haired duke is shown as he appeared at the end of his life.

The picture shows the illumination depicting the Temptation of Christ.

In 1410 the Limburg brothers were called to the court of Duke Jean de Berry at Mehun-sur-Yevre, near Bourges. There they painted a unique masterpiece, Les Tr�s Riches Heures, which today still draws countless admirers to the Mus�e Cond� in Chantilly, north of Paris. Now only ruins remain of the duke’s favourite castle, the Mehun-sur-Yevre, but in his chronology of 1400, the French poet Jean Froissart praised this castle as the most beautiful in the world. One of the illustrations from the Tr�s Riches Heures depicting the temptation of Christ does justice to Froissart’s hymn of praise. With its white towers decorated with Gothic tracery, the castle depicted looks like a monumental crown. It symbolizes the wealth of the world which Christ, seen on top of a minaret-like mountain, has refudsed in order to overcome the temptations offered by the Devil. The duke possibly wanted to relate this scene to the change in his own life, the quality of which is hinted at in the depiction of the castle, a metaphor for the temptations of the world of the senses. But it is doubtful whether de Berry was always as upright as the model he set himself.

The picture shows the illumination depicting the Meeting of the Three Magi.

This miniature from the Tr�s Riches Heures du Duc de Berry in the section of the book following the calendar is taken from the Gospels. The Kings and their retinues arrive from three directions, in a rugged, wintry landscape, to greet Jesus. Their bearded figures, with turbans on their heads, evoke no picture of French chivalry, but the notion of oriental peoples prevailing at that time. The three vivid, animated groups are separated and at the same time connected by a slender Gothic building in the centre of the picture. As if to counterbalance the dynamic composition, the view of a quiet, serene town - among the buildings of which the Notre-Dame of Paris can be seen - has been placed in the left background of the picture.

This remarkable image on folio 14v depicts a subtly graduated painting of Anatomical Man, the front and partial, mirrored back view of a nude youth standing with the seven planets in a mandorla, which in turn is framed by an almond-shaped border containing the signs of the zodiac.

The zodiac surrounding Anatomical Man is a notable mediaeval pictorial invention, and was fully developed in the 13th century. It represents the belief that man is a microcosm, and therefore the reflection of the macrocosm, of the order in the universe as a whole.

The picture shows the illumination depicting the Adoration of the Magi.

The pages depicting the Adoration of the Magi and Meeting of the Magi typify the most sumptuous and elegant qualities in the Tr�s Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, with the elaborately costumed Magi and their colourful entourages, complete with dromedaries and cheetahs, converging on the rickety stable in Bethlehem to pay homage in the decorous manner of court etiquette.

In the Adoration, Mary attended by six charming maidens, sits frontally to the left while her nude infant blesses the eldest Magus kneeling before him. The elegant composition with its rich surface pattern and bright colours was to become a standard formula for the Adoration of the Magi, north and south, replacing the more simplified versions in which only the three kings appear before the stable.

This miniature depicts The Fall and the Expulsion from Paradise.

In the centre of the circular Garden of Eden surrounded by a golden wall stands the ornate Late Gothic edifice of the Fountain of Life. The miniature (from the Book of Hours of the Duc de Berry) illustrates four episodes of the Fall and the Expulsion.

On the right-hand side we can see the temptation: Satan with an alluring face and hair, but with the lower part of a serpent, is handing over two golden apples to Eve, who has accepted one and is just taking the other. In the next scene Eve herself is the temptress: she hands over one apple to Adam, who looks like a nearly vanquished hero who resists to the last. One of his knees and one of his hands are already on the ground, he turns his body backwards and his arm is stretched out to receive the apple. Thus he evinces the effort he is making to resist temptation. In the third scene God the Father reproaches the couple. The lengthened rays of His halo seem to emphasize His words, while He is counting on His fingers the consequences of the sin. With his right hand Adam transfers the responsibility to Eve, who hides her sinful hand behind her back. And, finally, the casting out: an angel attired in fiery hues hustles Adam and Eve out of Paradise through a Gothic golden gate. They nostalgically look back upon the place of their happy and peaceful life. In front of them stretches the bleak and unknown world of bare mountains and awe-inspiring seas - indeed, the composition conveys to perfection the complete insecurity awaiting them.

The picture has no frame, the border of the whole representation being provided by the wall of Paradise. It is from this frame that Adam and Eve have to enter a world which has no boundaries, in which the very shores of the sea vanish, apparently turning into clouds in the infinity of space.

Although the ground of the Garden of Eden is stretched behind the figures like a tapestry, it is not merely a decorative surface, since the gradual darkening of the fresh green lawn conveys spatiality. In fact the hardly discernible nuances of green seem to lend the circle a spherical quality. The painter’s intention in this respect is also evinced by the use of perspective in the delineation of the fountain and also of the gate (for example, the roof of the fountain is seen and represented from below, whereas its hexagonal basin appears as if seen from above; indeed, the latter does not turn as steeply into the plane of the picture as does the ground itself). The lucid spatial relationship between the figures and the firm stance of the kneeling Adam lead us to conclude that the artists had definite ideas about representing space.

The Tr�s riches heures du Duc de Berry was conceived on a scale infinitely grander than that of any other known Book of Hours. It was illuminated by the Limbourg brothers for the Duc de Berry between about 1411 and 1416 when it was abandoned unfinished.

This miniature on folio 195r, for the Mass of St Michael, shows the archangel battling with the devil above a beautiful and still recognizable view of Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy.

August

The month of hawking; the nobles, carrying falcons, are going hunting while in the background peasants are harvesting and swimming in the river. Behind them is the Chateau d’Etampes.

April

The arrival of spring, hope and new life - the grass is green and a newly betrothed couple are exchanging rings in the foreground, accompanied by friends and family. The chateau is another one of the Duc’s, that of Dourdan.

December

In the forest of Vincennes, fabled for its game, a wild-boar hunt has caught a boar which is being torn apart by the boarhounds. In the background is the Chateau de Vincennes, long a residence of French royalty.

February

The scene illustrating the month of February depicts winter in a peasant village with the snow-covered land lying beneath a leaden sky. Life is in the grips of cold. Outside, wood is being cut and hauled away; inside, women and a man warm themselves at an open fire. All three unashamedly lift their garments, the couple in the back so far as to reveal their genitals. In the background daily life - cutting wood, taking cattle to the market - goes on as normal.

Regarding the landscape, the eye roams from detail to detail, from the smoke rising from the house into an iron-gray sky to the frosty breath of the man in the courtyard, from the random patches of snow on the haystack to the sheep huddled in the fold. Birds peck at grain just scattered by a peasant, whose footprints are still visible in the snow.

The art-loving Duke occupies the central place; his clear-cut profile is outlined against a large screen set before the fireplace. There is evidently a roaring fire in the fireplace for as many as three persons stretch their hands towards it. The table is splendidly supplied, showing the lavish abundance at a mediaeval feast. In the large dish on the right hand is a swan, one of the duke’s emblems. Small, round, flat loaves of bread are scattered around; they served as plates for the meat courses. One of the “little dogs” of the Duke, wandering at will on the fine, patterned tablecloth, can be seen smelling one of them. Soup was, of course, eaten from a plate and indeed, there is a plate before the host and one of his guests, a Church dignitary. There are also two dishes with poultry; the carver is just turning to one of them. The truly accomplished and graceful carver, sometimes working rhythmically to music, was one of the most valued servants among the host’s attendants. The figures display the fully developed Burgundian fashion of dressing, with all its oddities and exaggerations. Interesting examples of the mode can even be observed in the servants’ apparel.

The arch spanning the rectangular calendar pictures, painted in exquisite lapis-lazuli blue, contains four concentric arched fields. The outermost of these (in the finished depictions) bear the Latin names of the signs of the zodiac that succeed one another in the month concerned. The second field shows the starry band of the zodiac on a blue ground. In the innermost semicircle, finally, the sun god Phoebus is enthroned in his chariot, pulled by winged horses through the sky as he holds the sun in his hands.

Beneath this cosmological coronation and cyclical frame of reference, seasonal activities are depicted in full-page images of courtly or rural genre scenes playing out in front of magnificent background landscapes.

The Limbourgs used a wide variety of colours obtained from minerals, plants or chemicals and mixed with either arabic or tragacinth gum to provide a binder for the paint. Amongst the more unusual colours they used were vert de flambe, a green obtained from crushed flowers mixed with massicot, and azur d’outreme, an ultramarine made from crushed Middle Eastern lapis-lazuli, used to paint the brilliant blues. (This was, of course, extremely expensive!)

The extremely fine detail which was the characteristic feature of the Limbourgs needed extremely fine brushes and, almost certainly, lenses. Later additions to the Tr�s Riches Heures carried out by the late 15th-century artist Jean Colombe were carried out in a rather less delicate way. The calendars, however, were mostly painted by the Limbourgs; only November includes a substantial amount of Colombe’s work.

January

In the scene illustrating the month of January, the month of giving gifts (a custom which seems to have died out now), Jean de Berry himself can be seen on the right, wearing the brilliant blue robe.

July

More of the harvest; the sheep are being shorn and the hay is being reaped. The chateau behind them is that which formerly stood on the Clain at Poitiers.

June

Harvest time - the peasants are mowing the meadow in unison, with the Hotel de Nesle, the Duc’s Parisian residence, in the background. The building on the right is the Chapelle Royale, which is unchanged to this day.

May

The May jaunt, a pageant celebrating the “joli mois de Mai” in which one had to wear green garments known as livr�e de mai. The riders are young noblemen and women, with princes and princesses being visible. In the background is a chateau thought to be the Palais de la Cit� in Paris.

May

The May jaunt, a pageant celebrating the “joli mois de Mai” in which one had to wear green garments known as livr�e de mai. The riders are young noblemen and women, with princes and princesses being visible. In the background is a chateau thought to be the Palais de la Cit� in Paris.

March

This miniature, like the representations of the other eleven months, occupies a whole page of the Book of Hours, while the text referring to it is on the right-hand page, opposite it. The lack of border decoration conforms with the original intention of the painters. In addition to the signs of the zodiac and the figure of Apollo holding the flaming sun the semicircle at the top provides detailed astronomical information for every day of the month of March. It shows, for example, the positions of the moon, the times of sunrise and sunset, etc. These precise scientific details are accurately reflected by the painting, which shows the agricultural labours of the months and evokes the light of March sun and frequent March showers (see in the left upper corner the sheep, the shepherd and the dog running for shelter before the rain). The textures of the gently sloping ground differ according to whether they show unbroken grassy field, freshly ploughed furrows, pasture for sheep or dusty roads.

It is not scenes recalling stage settings of broad outlines we can see, but living landscapes, with figures moving freely in them. The proportions of the figures are in harmony with the places they occupy in the vast spaces. If they were removed, it would not change the unity of the landscape. At the same time, the figures are organic parts of their surroundings, they live in them and not in front of them. The bodies of the peasant and his oxen cast a shadow onto the furrows, while blades of grass can be seen before their feet.

A firm geometrical frame unites the composition. The Lusignan Castle of the Duc de Berry crowns the landscape parallel with the horizontal line of the oxen, plough and peasant. The road running from the two bottom corners divides the middle distance into four parts and the fields created in this way are further separated diagonally by low stone walls. Due to slight irregularities and to tiny details which absorb the spectator’s attention and to the fact that the viewpoint is not in the centre but slightly to the left, this system of lines does not appear to be arid. In all likelihood with this the Limbourgs wanted to get the picture closer to the opposite page with the text. The dragon flying towards the castle recalled to his contemporaries the legend of the lady of the castle who had been turned into a dragon. It makes us realize that in the wide blue skies of the Limbourgs there was still room for the naive ideas of the International Gothic style.

November

This is the only calendar image executed by Colombe; the Limbourgs painted only the zodiacal tympanum above it. The picture shows the autumn acorn harvest, with a peasant knocking down throwing sticks to knock down the acorns on which his pigs are feeding.

October

Tilling and sowing are being carried out by the peasants, in the shadow of the Louvre - Charles V’s royal palace in Paris.

September

Probably the most famous of the calendar images. The grapes are being harvested by the peasants and carried into the beautifully detailed Chateau de Saumur.

In 1404, Jean, the Duke of Berry called into his service the three Limbourg brothers, Pol, Herman, and Jean. Their first major project was the Belles Heures (also known as the Heures d’Ailly), today in New York. This book is especially interesting for its unusual cycles of illustrations of the legends of Sts Jerome, Gregory the Great, Bruno, Paul, and Anthony.

The handsome matins Annunciation in the book, shown here, is distinguished by the ornate borders of flowery acanthus rinceaux, which were clearly inspired by Italian models.

Jean, duke of Berry, was one of the greatest patrons of the Middle Ages, and he commissioned this exquisite book of hours from the Limbourg brothers, who worked exclusively for him. The book has 94 full-page miniatures, and many smaller ones, including calendar vignettes and border illuminations.

This scene shows St Paul the Hermit watching a young Christian tempted by a lewd woman, an episode that so horrified Paul he abandoned the world and fled to the desert.