The Magnificent Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry is the most famous and perhaps the best surviving example of French Gothic manuscript decoration, being the best example of the late phase of Gothic development. This is a book of hours - a collection of prayers said in the canonical hours. It was commissioned by Duke J. of Berry to the miniaturists brothers Paul, Jean and Erman of Limbourg between 1410 and 1411.
When the three artists and their sponsor died in 1416, possibly from the plague, the manuscript was left unfinished. It was later completed in the 1440s by an anonymous artist believed by many art historians to be Barthélemy d'Eyck (or van Eyck). In 1485-1489 the Book of Hours was brought to its present state by the artist Jean Colombe on behalf of the Duke of Savoy. The book, acquired by the Duke of Omal in 1856, is currently held in the Musée de Condé, Chantilly, France. The "Magnificent Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry", depicting the seasons in the context of medieval life, is a very beautiful and iconic work of art.
Backstory
Known throughout the world as the Limburg brothers, Paul, Jean and Herman Limburg were highly skilled miniature painters active in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Together they created one of the most beautiful illustrated books of the late Gothic period. The brothers were originally from the city of Nijmegen, now part of the Netherlands. They came from a creative family - their father was a sculptor and their maternal uncle was a famous painter who worked for Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.
From the mid-1400s to the mid-1800s, the heritage of the brothers was lost in the mists of time, until in 1856 a devoted bibliophile, the Duke of Omalsky, acquired one of their works - in fact, the same book of hours (Très Riches Heures). This purchase, and then the publication of the manuscript-book of hours, caused a surge of interest in the personality of its creators. Although the exact birth years of the brothers are not known, it is believed that all three died as a result of a wave of plague that hit Europe in 1416. They were all probably under 30.
In their relatively short life, they managed to create a number of complex and wonderful works. The artistic activity of these brothers (at least Jean and Herman) began when they became apprentices at a young age to a Parisian goldsmith. The training typical of artisans in the Middle Ages usually lasted about seven years.
However, these were turbulent times, and after only two years the boys were sent home,when the plague broke out in Paris in 1399. On their way home to Nijmegen, they were captured in Brussels, where the conflict was taking place during this period. Jean and Herman were kept in prison, ransom was required for them. Since their recently widowed mother did not have the necessary funds to pay the ransom, the boys were detained for approximately six months. In the end, Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, their uncle Jean's patron, paid half the ransom.
Artists and jewelers from their hometown paid the other half. Some scholars believe that after the release, the young people went to Italy. After his release, Philip the Bold commissioned three brothers to create a miniature bible over a four-year period. Scholars suggest that it was the so-called Moralize Bible (Moralized Bible), which is currently kept in the National Library of France.
When Philip the Bold died in 1404, the future was uncertain for both the brothers and their uncle, but eventually Philip's brother - Jean de France, Duke of Berry (or Berry) - took over the upbringing of the teenagers. They created for him "The Fine Watch of Jean de France", or "The Luxurious Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry". The history of the brothers of Limburg is inextricably linked with the we althy and powerful Duke of Berry, a major art patron and avid collector, and with the manuscripts they created for him.
Book of Hours
Belles Heures ("Books of Hours") - a very popular manuscript in the late Middle Ages. This is, in fact, a prayer book (with prayers andreadings for each period of the day), and it features the "Hours of the Virgin" (a set of psalms with lessons and prayers), a calendar, a standard series of readings from the Gospels, penitential psalms and hymns (or some of their variations). These were miniature works of art created for personal use, and usually contained many intricate allusions carefully inscribed on parchment.
The Book of Hours was for personal, religious use - it was not an official liturgical volume. As a rule, these books were quite miniature.
End of work
The Limburg brothers completed the Belles Heures ("Beautiful Hours") around 1409 - it was their only completed work. The Duke of Berry commissioned another book for worship in 1411 or 1412, which became The We alth of the Duke of Berry, probably the most famous example of Gothic illumination.
Although the two manuscripts (Belles Heures and Trés Riches Heures) were produced in a fairly short period of time, the stylistic differences are clear and it seems that at least one of the brothers (probably Paul, since he was the eldest), spent some time in Italy studying Renaissance masters such as Pietro Lorenzetti.
Be that as it may, the style of the hourbook changes from page to page - especially in the depiction of landscapes. This makes it one of the finest examples of Gothic Revival art.
Description
Manuscript consisting of 206 sheets of parchment very goodquality, 30 cm (12 inches) high and 21.5 cm (8.5 inches) wide, contains 66 large miniatures and 65 small ones. The design of the book, which is quite complex, has undergone many changes and revisions. Many artists have contributed to the miniatures, calligraphy, initials and patterns of the Book of Hours, but determining the exact number of edits and changes remains a matter of debate.
Recognition
After three centuries of obscurity, The Grand Hours of the Duke of Berry gained wide recognition in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, despite the fact that the Musée Condé was hardly exhibited publicly. His miniatures helped shape a somewhat idealized image of the Middle Ages in the collective vision of European society. These miniatures depict peasants doing agricultural work, as well as aristocrats in casual dress, against the backdrop of remarkable medieval architecture.
Further popularity
The "golden age" of the manuscript in Europe occurred in the period 1350-1480; The Book of Hours became popular in France around 1400. At this time, many major French artists took up the illumination of manuscripts. All this was not in vain. Their legacy lives on.
Jean, Duke of Berry, was a French feudal lord, for whom the Book of Hours was created. He spent his youth in the study of art and literature. After the death of the duke in 1416, a final inventory was made on his estate, during which the incomplete and unrelated collections of books were named "The Fine Hours of the Duke of Berry" to distinguish the collection from 15other books in the collection, including those from the so-called Belles Heures ("Beautiful Hours") and Petit Heures ("Small Hours").
Location
The Duke of Berry's Magnificent Book of Hours has changed hands several times since its inception. Meetings were certainly held at Berry's estate after the duke's death in 1416, but it is unclear what happened to him before 1485.
Discovery history
When a collector named Aumale found the manuscript in Genoa, he was able to recognize it as the property of the Duke of Berry, perhaps because he was familiar with a set of sheets of other manuscripts from the Duke's collection published in 1834. He gave the German art historian Gustav Friedrich Waagen the opportunity to inspect the manuscripts in Orleans, and after that the Book of Hours was talked about throughout Europe. It was also exhibited in 1862 at the Club des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
The identification of the found manuscript with the "Magnificent Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry" listed in the inventory of 1416 was carried out by Leopold Victor Delisle of the National Library of France, which was reported to Aumale in 1881. This was followed by an article in 1884 in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts.
The manuscript took pride of place in a three-part article about all the then known documents of the Duke of Berry and was the only one illustrated, with four plates in heliogravure. A special place in the illustrations was occupied by the engraving "Prayer for the Chalice". In The Duke's Book of HoursBerry" much attention was paid to events from the life of Christ.
Publication
A monograph with 65 heliogravure plates was published by Paul Durriot in 1904, with the aim of participating in a major exhibition of Gothic art in the French capital. There it was presented in the form of 12 plates from Durriot's monograph, since the terms of Aumale's will forbade the export of the Book of Hours from Chantilly.
The Book of Hours became more and more famous and recognizable. His first color reproductions using the technique of photogravure appeared in 1940 in the French art quarterly publication Verve. Each issue of this luxurious magazine cost three hundred francs. In January 1948, the very popular American photography magazine Life published full-page reproductions of 12 calendar scenes, slightly larger than their actual size, but of very poor quality.
Influenced by American censors of the time, the magazine censored one of the images by airbrushing a peasant's genitals in an image of the month of February. This action was very blasphemous in terms of respect for the work of art, since the main themes of the "Magnificent Hours of the Duke of Berry" are the seasons and medieval life, and not erotic motifs.
The Musée Condé removed the Hours from public display in the 1980s, replacing it with a complete copy. Art historian Michael Kamil argues that this decision completes the logic of the history of perception of this work, which became known only through reproductions, with the most famous of them published in obscuremagazines.
Another artist
In 1884, Léopold Delisle compared the manuscript with the description of the items in the inventory compiled after the death of the Duke of Berry.
Folio 75 of The Magnificent Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry includes images of Charles I, Duke of Savoy, and his wife. They married in 1485, but the duke died in 1489. The second artist who worked on the book of hours was identified by Paul Durrieu as Jean Colomb, who was paid 25 gold pieces by the Duke of Berry to depict the so-called "canonical hours" - a specific prayer book with a timetable. The sky-blue background of The Duke of Berry's Book of Hours fascinated people of the 19th century, spoiled by modernist painting and unaccustomed to classical art.
Shadow Master
The "intermediate artist" who contributed to the work on the Book of Hours is called the Master of Shadows (because shadows are an element of his style), and is often identified as Barthelemy (Bartholomew) van Eyck. He was a famous Dutch miniaturist. His work was exhibited and gained popularity as early as the 1420s. This intermediate artist is believed to have worked on the manuscript sometime between 1416 and 1485.
Evidence of the artistic style, as well as the details of the costume, indicate that some of the miniatures were painted by him, and not by the Limburgsky brothers. Figures in miniatures for January, April, May and August are dressed according to the style of 1420. The figures of October are dressed witha look back at the austere fashion of the mid-fifteenth century.
It is known that the books of hours fell into the hands of King Charles VII after the death of the Duke of Berry, and it is assumed that the mediator artist (Master of Shadows) is connected precisely with his court.
Material
The parchment used on all 206 sheets of The Duke of Berry's Book of Hours is high quality calfskin. All pages are full rectangles, their edges are intact and were cut from oversized hides. The folio is 30 cm high and 21.5 cm wide, although its original size was larger, as evidenced by several incisions in the miniatures. There are quite a few natural defects on the parchment, since the Book of Hours was kept very reliably. As you can tell from the design of The Duke of Berry's Book of Hours, minerals added to paint can be a wonderful artistic tool.
The base paints were thinned with water and thickened with gum arabic or gum tragacanth. In addition to white and black, about 20 more colors are used in the work. For detailed work, the artists needed very small brushes and probably a lens.
Conclusion
Thanks to the Limburg brothers, The Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry became one of the greatest works of late Gothic. By creating this masterpiece, the brothers immortalized not only their own names, but also the name of their patron - the duke. As The Magnificent Hours of the Duke of Berry convincingly proves by its example, a genuine work of art can glorify not only those who createdits creators, but also all the people who had anything to do with it.
