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The Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry
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The Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry

Herman, Paul, and Jean de Limbourg
(Franco-Netherlandish, active France, by 1399–1416)

Date: 1405–1408/1409
Geography: Made in Paris, France
Culture: French
Medium: Tempera, gold, and ink on vellum
Dimensions: Single leaf, Overall: 9 3/8 x 6 11/16 in. (23.8 x 17 cm); Double leaf, Overall: 9 3/8 x 13 7/16 in. (23.8 x 34.1 cm)
Classification: Manuscripts and Illuminations
Credit Line: The Cloisters Collection, 1954
Accession Number: 54.1.1a, b
On view in Gallery 013
Description Object Information Related Objects Online Resources Video Audio
Completed by 1408 or 1409, probably in Paris, "The Belles Heures," a private devotional book, was the first of several sumptuous manuscripts commissioned by the duke of Berry from the Limbourg brothers, Pol, Jean, and Herman. It is perhaps the only virtually complete and stylistically consistent prayer book to survive from the duke's extraordinary library. The richly illustrated text is amplified by unusual cycles reflecting the duke's personal interests. Using a luminous palette, the artists blended an intimate Northern vision of nature with Italianate modes of figural articulation. The keen interest in the natural world and the naturalistic means of representing it, so striking in ninety-four full-page and fifty-four column illuminations, foreshadow the work of Jan van Eyck and the ensuing generations of outstanding fifteenth-century painters in the South Netherlands.
For more information about the Belles Heures, including descriptions of all the illuminations with their folio numbers, please see http://blog.metmuseum.org/artofillumination/.
  • Provenance

    Jean, Duke of Berry d. 1416 (1408/09–d. 1416; item no. 960 in 1413 inventory) ; Yolande, Queen of Sicily and Duchess of Anjou (1417–d.1443) ; Pierre-Gabriel Bourlier, baron d'Ailly (before 1879–sold by 1884) ; Baron Edmond James Rothschild , Paris (by 1884–d. 1934) ; by descent, Maurice Edmond Charles Rothschild , Paris and Geneva (1936–1954) ; [ Rosenberg & Stiebel , New York (sold 1954)]

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