Limbourg brothers
Illumination on vellum, 22,5 x 13,6 cm
The Limbourg brothers, or in Dutch Gebroeders van Limburg (Herman, Paul, and Johan; 1385..1416), were famous Dutch medieval miniaturist painters from the city of Nijmegen. They were active in the early 15th century in France. They are best known for the illuminated manuscript Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.
Their grandfather called Johannes de Lymborgh probably came from Limbourg on the Meuse to Nijmegen, then the capital of the duchy of Gelre. His son Arnold was a wood carver who worked for the ducal court. Around 1385 he married Mechteld Maelwael, daughter of a well-todo family of heraldic painters. Herman (Hermant in French sources) was the eldest child (born about 1385), followed by Paul (Polleke; or Polequin in French sources: 1386 or 1387), and Johan (Johanneke; or Jacquemin, Gillequin, or Jehanequin in French sources: probably 1388). They had younger brothers Rutger and Arnold, and a sister Greta.
About 1398, after their father's death, their mother sent them to her brother Johan Maelwael (Jehan Maleuel in French sources), a heraldic painter who worked for the French and Burgundian courts. Herman and Johan learned the craft of goldsmith in Paris. At the end of 1399 they returned to visit Nijmegen, but because of a war were captured in Brussel. Their mother could not pay the ransom of 55 gold escuz. The local goldsmith guild started to collect the money, but eventually Philip the Bold paid the ransom for the sake of their uncle, his painter; the two boys were released in May 1400.
From preserved documents it is known that in February 1402 Paul and Johan were contracted by Philip to work for four years exclusively on illuminating a bible. This may or may not have been the Bible Moralisée, Ms.fr.166 in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, which is indisputably an early work by the Limbourg brothers. Philip died in 1404, before the brothers had completed their work.
Herman, Paul, and Johan later in 1404 came to work for Jean de Berry, a brother of the deceased Philip. He was an extravagant collectioner of arts and especially books. Their first assignment was to illuminate a Book of Hours, now known as the Belles Heures du Duc de Berry; it is preserved in The Cloisters of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
This work was finished in 1409 much to the satisfaction of the duke, and he assigned them to an even more ambitious project for a Book of Hours. This became the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, which is widely regarded as the ultimate of medieval book illumination, and possibly the most valuable book in the world. It is kept as Ms.65 in the Musée Condé in Chantilly, France.
Especially Paul was on good terms with the duke, and became a valet de chambre (personal servant). The duke gave him jewelry and a big house in Bourges. Paul took fancy of a young girl, Gillette la Mercière, but her parents disapproved. The duke had the girl confined, and released her only on command of the king. In 1411 Paul and Gillette married anyway, but the marriage remained childless (the girl was 12, her husband 24 at the time).
In the first half of 1416, Jean de Berry and the three brothers Limbourg (all three less than 30 years old) died of unknown causes, and the Très Riches Heures remained unfinished. An unidentified artist (possibly Barthélemy van Eyck) worked on the famous 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 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 the dying art of miniature painting. They worked in a North-European tradition, but display influences from Italian models.
Reference
- Rob Dückers and Pieter Roelofs (eds.), The brothers van Limburg. Exhibition catalogue, Ludion, Nijmegen 2005. ISBN 90-5544-576-2