Gebroeders van Limburg for the Dutch, the Limbourg Brothers painted together miniatures of illustrations used to decorate medieval manuscripts called Illuminations and they followed the Gothic style both French and Italian way.
Herman, Paul, and Johan Limbourg were all born in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Herman was born in 1385, Paul (Pol) was born in 1386 and Jean (Johan) in 1385 (yes, very active mother).
They were born into a family of artisans who painted coats of arms to families of dukes and barons in shields, flags and streamers.
Through direct family relationship with the nobility of the entire kingdom of the Low Countries and France the brothers didn't tread a difficult path to fame.
But of course... there would be no fame if there were no talent.
First things first: what is an Illumination on a manuscript?
When a book contained a very relevant importance, whether it be a sacred manuscript, a family memorial, copies of clerical books, poetry or folk tales, the technique of the illuminations adds symbolic and artistic value to the work. And when I say "value" I mean it, it was really expensive to order an illuminated manuscript. The technique wasn't expensive just because of the complexity of it's tiny details full of colors on a rare and mostly unique book, happens that very few artists dominated the technique and beyond all this is a very cautious and time consuming work.
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| Bible Moralisée page by Limbourg Brothers |
Why were medieval illuminations so expensive and rare? Come along step by step.
- Using a silver pencil was made the drawing, on paper or parchment, specially prepared, such pencil could only be used to write on soft surfaces (wax or bark), following another sub-drawing on parchment, and drawing paper and support of prepared panel.
- Then polished gold dots were applied.
- The application of color modulating components.
- Follow the three previous steps in each detail of the illumination.
- The penning - formerly consisting of a sharpened and split quill - of a rinceaux - a continuous wavy stemlike motif from which smaller leafy stems or groups of leaves branch out at more or less regular intervals - appearing in the border of a page.
- The last step is to follow all the previous steps to draw and paint the larger figures of the edges or the initial letters.
Are you tired just thinking about it? The Limbourg Brothers weren't.
They had their own favorite themes, such as landscapes and castles. If the art of illuminations is already detailing the three brothers made it even more detailed.
Because of a very long plot involving wars, kidnappings, marriages, alliances and many journeys, the brothers ended up in the castle of the Prince of France, John, Duke of Berry, in Paris (summarizing how they got there: a cousin of them who was a nephew of a French court painter who had an affair with the Queen got asked for uncle to indicate them as court artists) and the Duke of Berry was a great art enthusiast, paying himself for several Parisian buildings, such as the famous Saint Chapelle.
The "Belles Heures" (1405–09) was the first work commissioned by the Duke of Berry. The Belles Heures is the only book that was illustrated only by the brothers.
Despite success, distinguishing individual styles in the 21st century (working with photomicrographs of the manuscript "Belles Heures") Margaret Lawson, a respectable art historian, was able to distinguish three different styles, or "hands" - which drew the drawing hand, the hand painter, and the elegant hand as well works that are collaborations and are not well differentiated. You do not know a member. Of the three, Paul was the most famous, earning special honors - including an impressive mansion from the Duke.
It's essentially a prayer book (with prayers and readings for set times throughout a day), and it they typically featured the “Hours of the Virgin” (a set of psalms with lessons and prayers), a calendar, a standard series of readings from the Gospels, the Office for the Dead, the Penitential Psalms, and hymns (or some variation thereof). They were miniature works of art made for private use, and generally contained a number of intricate illuminations painstakingly created on vellum (calfskin). A book of hours was for personal, devotional use—it was not an official liturgical volume.
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| "Belles Heures" pages |
When "Belles Heures" was finished the Duke of Berry soon commissioned another work, "Très Riches Heures" one of the most majestic things your eyes have ever seen and your mint will hardly understand.
The Duke of Berry wanted a calendar. But he got way more than this. It displays the tremendous skill and expansive sensibilities in every detail of the Brothers. Their elegant and sophisticated approach combined naturalism of detail with overall decorative effect. Their work on this volume seems to reflect their special relationship to the Duke, and the book’s images reveal their intimate knowledge of the Duke’s daily life. Through their travels with him and their presence in the life of the court. Still more than this.
Consisting of a total of 206 leaves of very fine quality parchment, 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 Low Countries, often using rare and costly pigments and gold, and with an unusually large number of illustrations, the book is one of the most lavish late medieval illuminated manuscripts. Most of the illustrations show one of the Duke’s castles in the background, and each are accompanied by a sun carrying Phoebus beneath an archway depicting the appropriate zodiac signs. Meanwhile, the February page takes us outside into the frigid winter air. Wan light falls across a snow covered landscape where in the background we see a town blanketed in snow, along with a peasant and a donkey gamely taking the road towards it. In the middle ground we see another peasant diligently chopping wood, while another hurries towards shelter. In the foreground we see the farm as well peasants warming themselves in a small wooden house. he tunics of both the men are pulled so high, assumedly in an effort to warm their chilled legs, that their nether regions are exposed—something that might strike modern viewers as incongruous to a religious book.
Something else that might strike the modern viewer as curious is the incorporation of the zodiac into this book of hours. For every calendar page, the corresponding astrological sign is shown at the top of the page in a lunette or tympanum. This is in part because the stars were integrally tied to the agricultural calendar. Also, medieval medical practitioners believed that people’s health issues were related to what constellation they were born under. Even the church calendar used the Zodiac to calculate feast days. For the month of May, we see the astrological signs of the bull and the twins, accompanying the chariot of the sun.
The parchment or vellum used in the 206 folios is fine quality calfskin. All bi-folios are complete rectangles and the edges are unblemished and therefore must have been cut from the centre of skins of sufficient size. The folios measure 30 cm in height by 21.5 cm in width, although the original size was larger as evidenced by several cuts into the miniatures. The tears and natural flaws in the vellum are infrequent and almost go unnoticed.
The ground colors were moistened with water and thickened with either gum Arabic or tragacanth gum. Approximately ten shades are used besides white and black. The detailed work required extremely small brushes and probably a lens.
Consisting of a total of 206 leaves of very fine quality parchment, 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 Low Countries, often using rare and costly pigments and gold, and with an unusually large number of illustrations, the book is one of the most lavish late medieval illuminated manuscripts. Most of the illustrations show one of the Duke’s castles in the background, and each are accompanied by a sun carrying Phoebus beneath an archway depicting the appropriate zodiac signs. Meanwhile, the February page takes us outside into the frigid winter air. Wan light falls across a snow covered landscape where in the background we see a town blanketed in snow, along with a peasant and a donkey gamely taking the road towards it. In the middle ground we see another peasant diligently chopping wood, while another hurries towards shelter. In the foreground we see the farm as well peasants warming themselves in a small wooden house. he tunics of both the men are pulled so high, assumedly in an effort to warm their chilled legs, that their nether regions are exposed—something that might strike modern viewers as incongruous to a religious book.
Something else that might strike the modern viewer as curious is the incorporation of the zodiac into this book of hours. For every calendar page, the corresponding astrological sign is shown at the top of the page in a lunette or tympanum. This is in part because the stars were integrally tied to the agricultural calendar. Also, medieval medical practitioners believed that people’s health issues were related to what constellation they were born under. Even the church calendar used the Zodiac to calculate feast days. For the month of May, we see the astrological signs of the bull and the twins, accompanying the chariot of the sun.
The parchment or vellum used in the 206 folios is fine quality calfskin. All bi-folios are complete rectangles and the edges are unblemished and therefore must have been cut from the centre of skins of sufficient size. The folios measure 30 cm in height by 21.5 cm in width, although the original size was larger as evidenced by several cuts into the miniatures. The tears and natural flaws in the vellum are infrequent and almost go unnoticed.
The ground colors were moistened with water and thickened with either gum Arabic or tragacanth gum. Approximately ten shades are used besides white and black. The detailed work required extremely small brushes and probably a lens.
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| Très Riches Heures pages |
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| Anatomical Zodiac Man |
The Anatomical Zodiac Man concludes the calendar. The twelve signs of the zodiac appear over the corresponding anatomical regions. It contains Berry's coat of arms of three fleurs-de-lis on a blue background. Such an image appears in no other book of hours, but astrology was one of Berry's interests, and several works on the subject were in Berry's library. The two figures are sometimes regarded as male and (looking out at the viewer) female, but Pognon finds both "strangely hermaphrodite", and intentionally so. {Folio 14}
They left the "Très Riches Heures" unfinished when they all died suddenly in the same month, January, perhaps during an outbreak of the plague in 1416.
Medieval Illumination technique:
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