The art of illumination the Limbourg brothers and the Belles heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry Timothy B. Husband

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Husband, Timothy, 1945-

Contributor:

J. Paul Getty Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Limburg family--Exhibitions.

Limburg family.

Limburg family.

Belles heures of Jean of France, Duke of Berry--Illustrations--Exhibitions.

Belles heures of Jean of France, Duke of Berry.

Books of hours--France--Exhibitions.

Books of hours.

Illumination of books and manuscripts, Gothic--France--Exhibitions.

Illumination of books and manuscripts, Gothic.

Illumination of books and manuscripts, French--Exhibitions.

Illumination of books and manuscripts, French.

France.

Genre:

Exhibition catalogs

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 376 pages) illustrations (some color)

Place of Publication:

New York Metropolitan Museum of Art ; 2008

New Haven Yale University Press 2008

System Details:

Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212

Summary:

"One of the most lavishly illustrated codices of the Middle Ages, the Belles Heures of Jean de France, duc de Berry (ca. 1405-1408/9), is the only manuscript with miniatures executed entirely by the famed Limbourg brothers. Commissioned by its royal patron, this richly illuminated Book of Hours, intended for private devotion and now housed in The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, belonged to the duke's large collection of prized possessions" "In this volume, the Limbourgs provided the customary components of a Book of Hours, including readings from the Gospels and prayers to the Virgin. The Belles Heures, however, was elevated to unprecedented heights by the addition of seven "picture book" insertions. These pages provided a framework for developing the Limbourgs' figural style, refining their palette, experimenting with light and surface values, and devising coherent compositional formulas that focused the dramatic charge of the image. These illuminations, both sacred and secular in subject, range from traditional scenes of Christ's life and ministry to images reflecting the turbulence of the period, such as victims struck by the plague." "Timothy B. Husband's scholarship positions the manuscript, its artists, and its patron in context with other objects in the duke's collection and the sources and inspiration of the art. He meticulously charts the components of the codex, its organization and decoration, sequence of production, and the compositional intelligence of the narrative cycles. He places the Belles Heures within the trajectory of fifteenth-century manuscript illumination, delineating the development of the Limbourgs throughout their short careers. A lyrically written central chapter in this volume describes each illumination in the Belles Heures in formal terms and provides selected transcriptions and English translations of the Latin text."--Jacket

Contents:

Director's Foreword / Philippe De Montebello

Introduction. Belles Heures of Jean de France

Jean de France, Duc de Berry

Limbourg Brothers

Structure and Summary of the Manuscript

Collation

Page Organization and Decoration

Sequence of Production

Descriptions and Texts of the Miniatures

Compositional Intelligence of the Narrative Cycles

Sources and Influences

Artistic Achievements of the Limbourg Brothers

Technical Observations: Materials, Techniques, and Conservation of the Belles Heures Manuscript / Margaret Lawson

Family Members of Jean de France, Duc de Berry

Schematic Chart of Calendar Pages

Photography and Reproduction Credits

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Electronic reproduction. [Place of publication not identified] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2011

Print version record

Other Format:

Print version Husband, Timothy, 1945- Art of illumination

OCLC:

741860033