Exhibitions/ The Art of Illumination

The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry

March 1–June 12, 2010

Exhibition Overview

The Belles Heures (1405–1408/9) of Jean de Berry, a treasure of The Cloisters collection, is one of the most celebrated and lavishly illustrated manuscripts in this country. Because it is currently unbound, it is possible to exhibit all of its illuminated pages as individual leaves, a unique opportunity never to be repeated. The exhibition will elucidate the manuscript, its artists—the young Franco-Netherlandish Limbourg Brothers—and its patron, Jean de France, duc de Berry. A select group of precious objects from the same early fifteenth-century courtly milieu will place the manuscript in the context of the patronage of Jean de Berry and his royal family, the Valois.


Featured Media

 

The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures - Behind the Scenes with the Director

 

The Belles Heures Since the Duc de Berry


The exhibition is made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Michel David-Weill Fund.

The related publication is made possible by the Michel David-Weill Fund.