Limbourg Brothers
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Limbourg brothers (;
fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...
1385 – 1416) were Dutch miniature painters (Herman, Paul, and Jean) from the city of
Nijmegen Nijmegen ( , ; Nijmeegs: ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and the ninth largest of the Netherlands as a whole. Located on the Waal River close to the German border, Nijmegen is one of the oldest cities in the ...
. They were active in the early 15th century in France and
Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...
, working in the
International Gothic International Gothic is a period of Gothic art that began in Burgundy, France, and northern Italy in the late 14th and early 15th century. It then spread very widely across Western Europe, hence the name for the period, which was introduced by the ...
style. They painted the miniatures and decorated page margins for the best-known late medieval
illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...
, the
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry The (; ), or , is an illuminated manuscript that was created between and 1416. It is a book of hours, which is a Christians, Christian devotional book and a collection of prayers said at canonical hours. The manuscript was created for John, ...
, the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry, in both of which their work survives largely complete although, like many grand manuscript projects, the Très Riches Heures was not finished.


Family background and early life

A Johannes de Lymborgh appears in mid-14th century archives. He may have come from
Limbourg Limbourg (; German and Dutch: ''Limburg''; ) or Limbourg-sur-Vesdre is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On 1 January 2008, Limbourg had a total population of 5,680. The total area is 24.63 k ...
on the
Meuse The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...
to Nijmegen, then the capital of the duchy of Gelre, and appears to be the father of Arnold de Limbourch, a wood carver and sculptor whose name also appears in medieval archives. In 1385 Arnold married Mechteld Maelwael or Maloeul. She came from a family of craftsmen and painters. Her father and uncle were painters in the employ of the Duke of Guelders, as gilders and as painters of
heraldic Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...
devices. It was as a heraldic painter that Mechteld's brother
Jean Malouel Jean Malouel, or Jan Maelwael in his native Dutch, ( 1365 – 1415) was a Dutch artist who was the court painter of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and his successor John the Fearless, working in the International Gothic style. Documented ...
received a commission in Paris by
Isabeau of Bavaria Isabeau of Bavaria (or Isabelle; also Elisabeth of Bavaria-Ingolstadt; c. 1370 – 24 September 1435) was Queen of France as the wife of King Charles VI of France, Charles VI from 1385 to 1422. She was born into the House of Wittelsbach a ...
in 1396, regent regent to her husband
Charles VI of France Charles VI (3 December 136821 October 1422), nicknamed the Beloved () and in the 19th century, the Mad ( or ''le Fou''), was King of France from 1380 until his death in 1422. He is known for his mental illness and psychosis, psychotic episodes t ...
. Within the year Maloul accepted the position as ''
valet de chambre ''Valet de chambre'' (), or ''varlet de chambre'', was a court appointment introduced in the late Middle Ages, common from the 14th century onwards. Royal households had many persons appointed at any time. While some valets simply waited on ...
'' and court painter to Charles's uncle Philip the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy.Husband (2008), 279 Arnold and Mechteld had six children over the next decade: the three boys, Herman, Paul, and Jean were born between and ; two more boys in the early 1390s and a daughter in the mid-1390s. In the late 1390s (probably around 1398) Herman and Jean were sent to Paris,Husband (2008), 33-34 where records from 1399 document them as apprentices to a Parisian goldsmith, a position possibly organized by their uncle. That year the goldsmith sent the boys home to Guelders during an outbreak of disease in Paris. They were captured and imprisoned in Brussels, probably because of a conflict between Brabant and Guelders, with their ransom set at 55 '' écus'' plus prison expenses. The boys' father had died that year leaving their mother destitute, unable to secure their release. Local guild members in Brussels tried to raise the funds, but six months passed, the boys were still in captivity, when Philip the Bold paid the ransom in May of 1400.Meiss, 67-68


Philip the Bold

In February 1402 Paul and Jean were contracted by Philip to work for four years exclusively on illuminating a bible (a ''très belle et notable Bible''). It is their first documented commission and the work seems to have been executed in Paris. Art historians are divided as to whether the '' Bible Moralisée'' ( 166 in the
Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...
in Paris is the same manuscript as Philip's commission;Husband (2008), 36 although there is consensus that manuscript was executed by Jean and Pol Limbourg.Dückers (2005), 85-86 A bible moralisée is a type of condensed and heavily illustrated bible that emerged in the 13th century. It followed a specific format in which bible passages were paired with commentary or moralizations and an image, with each page containing four pairs of images meant to dominate the page. Typically such a bible contained more than 5000 painted miniatures; the cost and labor involved in such a production was so great that only royalty commissioned them. Manuscript 166 in Paris is an almost verbatim copy of the bible moralisée commissioned by Philip's father
John II of France John II (; 26 April 1319 – 8 April 1364), called John the Good (French: ''Jean le Bon''), was King of France from 1350 until his death in 1364. When he came to power, France faced several disasters: the Black Death, which killed between a thir ...
, known as 167, which contains 5122 miniatures. The contract Philip executed with the brothers was quite specific: they were to provide miniatures (''ystoires'') as quickly as possible irrespective of holidays, to be paid a daily rate of 6
sous The Sous region (also spelt Sus, Suss, Souss or Sousse) (, ) is a historical, cultural and geographical region of Morocco, which constitutes part of the region administration of Souss-Massa and Guelmim-Oued Noun. The region is known for the en ...
. Philip's physician, Jean Durant, was to supervise the effort, for which he received 600
franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th century ...
s and periodic repayments for
lapis lazuli Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color. Originating from the Persian word for the gem, ''lāžward'', lapis lazuli is ...
used to produce
Illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...
s. In 1404 the brothers are referred to as ''peintres et historieurs'', whereas they were earlier referred to as painters (''peintres'') and illuminators (''enlumineurs''). They almost certainly painted the miniatures as well as the borders. They completed folios 1-24 and the underdrawings to folio 32. The recorded documentation regarding specific commissions ends with Philip's death in April 1404.


Jean de Berry

After Philip died the brothers were employed by his brother
John, Duke of Berry John of Berry or John the Magnificent (French language, French: ''Jean de Berry'', ; 30 November 1340 – 15 June 1416) was Duke of Berry and Rulers of Auvergne, Auvergne and Count of Poitiers and Montpensier. His brothers were King Charles ...
– an extravagant collector of the arts and books. Their first assignment was to illuminate a
book of hours A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...
, now known as the Belles Heures du Duc de Berry, now held in
The Cloisters The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights, Manhattan, Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art ...
of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
in New York City.Husband (2008), p. x Around this period they also painted some pages of the Très Belles Heures de Notre-Dame, a single page added to the Petites Heures de Jean de Berry (perhaps in 1412, now BnF, Paris), and other dispersed pages. Between the period of 1408 until their deaths in 1416, the brothers are referenced in 12 extant documents and inventories, recorded by Berry's ''
valet de chambre ''Valet de chambre'' (), or ''varlet de chambre'', was a court appointment introduced in the late Middle Ages, common from the 14th century onwards. Royal households had many persons appointed at any time. While some valets simply waited on ...
''. These describe payments and exchanges of valuable gifts. Paul received two diamond rings and an emerald ring in the shape of a bear from the duke as New Year's day gifts between 1408 and 1413; 100 ecus "so he could clothe himself and be more honorable in the duke's employ"; and all the brothers received rings in 1414 and 1415. In return the brothers reciprocated with lavish gifts. By that time all three brothers had achieved the position of ''varlet de chambre''. The duke gifted Paul with a large house in
Bourges Bourges ( ; ; ''Borges'' in Berrichon) is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre (Cher), Yèvre. It is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Cher (department), Cher, and also was the capital city of the former provin ...
suitable to "a nobleman of the noble blood". Paul was attracted to a young girl, Gillette la Mercière, but her parents disapproved. The duke had the girl confined, and released her only on the king's command. In 1411 Paul and Gillette married anyway, but the marriage remained childless (the girl was 12, her husband 24 at the time). The Belles Heures was finished in 1409 which was followed by ''
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry The (; ), or , is an illuminated manuscript that was created between and 1416. It is a book of hours, which is a Christians, Christian devotional book and a collection of prayers said at canonical hours. The manuscript was created for John, ...
'', widely regarded as the peak of late medieval book illumination, and possibly the most valuable book in the world. It is kept as 65 in the
Musée Condé The – in English, the Condé Museum – is a French museum located inside the Château de Chantilly in Chantilly, Oise, 40 km north of Paris. In 1897, Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale, son of Louis Philippe I, bequeathed the château and ...
in Chantilly, France.


Death

In the first half of 1416, Jean de Berry and the three Limbourg brothers – all not yet 30 years old – died, possibly of the plague, leaving the ''Très Riches Heures'' unfinished. An unidentified artist (possibly Barthélemy van Eyck) completed the calendar miniatures in the 1440s when the book apparently was in the possession of René d'Anjou, and in 1485 Jean Colombe finished the work for the
House of Savoy The House of Savoy (, ) is a royal house (formally a dynasty) of Franco-Italian origin that was established in 1003 in the historical region of Savoy, which was originally part of the Kingdom of Burgundy and now lies mostly within southeastern F ...
. The work of the Limbourg brothers, being mostly inaccessible, became forgotten until the 19th century. Nevertheless, they set an example for the next generations of painters, which extended beyond miniature painting. They worked in a Northern European tradition, but display influences from Italian models. Among their own sources of artistic inspiration was the work of the Master of the Brussels Initials.


References


Sources

* Rob Dückers and Pieter Roelofs (eds). ''The Limbourg brothers: Nijmegen masters at the French court, 1400–1416''. Exhibition catalogue, Ludion, Nijmegen 2005. * Dückers, Rob; Pieter Roelofs (eds). ''The Limbourg Brothers''. Brill, 2009. * Husband, Timothy B., ''The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry''. The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2008. * Lowden, John. (2005). "The ''Bible Moralisée'' in the Fifteenth Century and the Challenge of the ''Bible Historiale''". ''Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes'', Vol. 68, pp. 73-136 * Manion, Margaret M. (1995). "Psalter Illustration in the ''Très Riches Heures'' of Jean de Berry." ''Gesta'' (International Center of Medieval Art) vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 147–161. * Meiss, Millard.
French painting in the time of Jean de Berry : the Limbourgs and their contemporaries
'. Thames and Hudson, 1974.


External links


Website of the 2005 exhibition in Nijmegen

Website of the annual medieval festival dedicated to the Limbourg brothers in Nijmegen

Limbourg brothers
last Illuminators of the Medieval Art {{ACArt 1416 deaths Gothic painters Early Netherlandish painters Artists from Nijmegen Arts in the court of Philip the Good Artist families Brother trios Year of birth unknown Manuscript illuminators 15th-century deaths from plague (disease)