Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry
The Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry, or Belles Heures of Jean de Berry (The Beautiful Hours) is an early 15th century illuminated manuscript book of hours (containing prayers to be said by the lay faithful at each of the canonical hours of the day) commissioned by John of France, Duke of Berry. The miniatures are in ink, tempera and gold leaf on vellum, with a page size of 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 inches (238 x 168 mm), It is preserved in The Cloisters of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, catalogued as "1954 (54.1.1)".
The Duke was a generous patron and a collector of books. He engaged the young brothers Herman, Paul, and Johan Limbourg as illuminators in 1404 following the death of their former patron, his brother Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy[1]. The Belles Heures was their first work for their new patron, and is the only manuscript to be entirely illuminated by the brothers. Its 172 pages include many large miniatures, many iconographically unusual, taken from the lives of saints in the Golden Legend, as well as large borders.
In 2010, when the manuscript was unbound, it was the subject of The Art of Illumination: The Limburg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry, an exhibition at the Metropolitan where all the pages with miniatures were displayed, "a unique opportunity never to be repeated."[2]
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[edit] References
- Art of Illumination Exhibition at the Metropolitan on the manuscript in 2010
- Husband, Timothy B. The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry. New York and New Haven, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2008, ISBN 9780300136715
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