Instead, a modern facsimile is presented both to tourists and academic visitors.Īs usually is the case with art, the key is in looking at them not reading about them. The original is now in the Musée Condé, heavily protected and almost never shown to the public. He connected the dots and identified the book as a commission of De Berry and used his contacts in the art history world to popularize it. In 1856, Henri d’Orléans, Duke of Aumale, bought the book from Baron Felix de Margherita of Turin and Milan (the longish aristocratic titles always make me grin, I just cannot help myself). Surprisingly, the book was not broadly known until the 19th century, and the Limbourg brothers were completely forgotten. Nonetheless, their mastery cannot be denied the attention to detail is striking. So, the most commonly known works from Très Riches Heures are actually outliers. This text is illustrated with the labors of the months, but the illuminations mostly focus on religious topics, as befits a prayer book. Judging by the style of the miniatures and the clothing of people presented in them, it is also broadly agreed that there is evidence of a hand of an ‘intermediate painter.’ In 1485, it was acquired by Charles I of Savoy, who commissioned Jean Colombe to finish the work. However, the fate of the manuscript between 14 is unknown. When the Duke and his artists died, the Duke’s estate was auctioned to cover the cost of his lavish lifestyle, including the unfinished manuscript. Jean de Berry, the Duke of Berry portrayed in Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Musée Condé, Chantilly, France. After that, they started work on Très Riches Heures, but it was interrupted by their and their patron’s untimely death in 1416, most probably of plague. Their first commission for the Duke was the Belles Heures – the only manuscript they completed for him. Then, their first major patron (Jean de Berry’s brother Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy) died in 1404, and finally, the brothers found a new home under the wing of Jean de Berry. Their early life was a very turbulent period and included an apprenticeship in Paris cut short by the plague and being imprisoned in Brussels for ransom. They originated from Nijmegen in today’s Netherlands. They seem to have been bound so close by the work they did that we know them collectively as Limbourg brothers, but they actually had names: Paul, Jean, and Herman. Given De Berry’s passion, it is understandable that he would be the patron of the Limbourg brothers. Sadly, when Jean de Berry died, it became obvious that he lived above his means and his estate was heavily in debt, resulting in the sale of many of the manuscripts. His estate also included many castles, some of which you’ll see in the illuminations used in this text. Apart from the Très Riches Heures, he also possessed Petites Heures, Belles Heures, and Turin-Milan Heures, among others. While he may have had a very rich life, what he is most remembered for is his fondness for manuscripts. John, Duke of Berry, or Jean de Berry, in his native language, was the third son of John II, the King of France. The Duke of Berry certainly believed he possessed pockets deep enough, but after his death, some of his creditors begged to differ. The Duke of Berry and the Limbourg Brothers Herman, Paul, and Jean de Limbourg, Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, February, 1412-1489, Musée Condé, Chantilly, France. Given the cost of such richly illuminated manuscripts, those pockets would have to be sufficiently deep, of course. In a monastery, a full breviary would be used for such a purpose, but a book of hours can be considered a “pocket version” of the breviary. A book of hours is a book containing such prayers and psalms to help people practice devotion at home. But what is a book of hours, really? The hours refer to canonical hours, which mark the fixed time of prayers during the day, associated with specific religious topics. This is because they were also the ones that were most frequently ordered. Today we’ll take a closer look at one of the world’s most famous manuscripts, the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, or The Very Rich Hours of Duke of Berry, fancy title isn’t it?īooks of hours are probably the most common type of manuscripts that survived from the Middle Ages until our times. But it takes only a brief look to completely dismiss the idea of the Middle Ages being, in any way, a “worse” time for culture. A lot of it has to do with our anthropocentric worldview, which is very different from the values that ruled the Middle Ages. On the other hand, there’s this lingering notion that the Middle Ages were a gloomy valley between the cultural peaks of antiquity and Rennaisance. On one hand, we know that a lot of amazing art was created during that time. The Middle Ages have a very sketchy reputation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |