Les Très Riches Heures Du Duc De Berry

Plot

The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, or Très Riches Heures, is possibly the best example of French Gothic manuscript illumination surviving to the present day. It is a book of hours: a collection of prayers to be said at canonical hours. It was created between 1412 and 1416 for John, Duke of Berry, by the Limbourg brothers. When the three painters and their sponsor died in 1416, possibly victims of plague, the manuscript was left unfinished. It was further embellished in the 1440s by an anonymous painter, who many art historians believe was Barthélemy d'Eyck. In 1485-1489, it was brought to its present state by the painter Jean Colombe on behalf of the Duke of Savoy. Acquired by the Duc d'Aumale in 1856, the book currently resides in the Musée Condé, Chantilly, France. Consisting of a total of 206 vellum leaves, 30 cm in height by 21.5 cm in width, the manuscript contains 66 large miniatures and 65 small. The design of the book, which is long and complex, has undergone many changes and reversals. Many artists contributed to its miniatures, calligraphy, initials, and marginal decorations, but determining their precise number and identity remains a matter of debate. Painted largely by artists from the Netherlands, sometimes using rare and costly pigments,[1] the paintings are strongly influenced by Italian art and antiquities. After three centuries in obscurity, the Très Riches Heures gained wide recognition in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, despite having only rare public exposure. Its miniatures helped to shape an ideal image of the Middle Ages in the collective imagination. This is particularly true for the calendric images, which are the most commonly reproduced. They offer vivid representations of peasants performing agricultural work as well as aristocrats in formal attire, against a background of remarkable medieval architecture.