Limbourg Brothers

   Three brothers, Paul, Herman, and Jan, active as painters in Paris and at the court of the dukes of Burgundy in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Not much is known about their lives or even their dates; all three were dead by 1416. They are remembered for two sets of manuscript illuminations for aristocratic devotional books (books of hours), Les Belles heures (ca. 1408) and Les très riches heures du Duc de Berry (1413-1416). The latter work is especially famous for the remarkable scenes of contemporary life illustrating the change of seasons throughout the year. Their genre, miniatures executed in manuscript books, is distinctly medieval, and they exemplify the last phase of medieval Gothic painting, the International Style. The Limbourgs' books of hours were created for private use by members of the French royal family and hence were not likely to be known to the public. But work of this type, especially in its rich colors and its use of the new technique of oil painting, had great influence on the development of painting in 15th-century Italy; and the scenes of both peasant life and aristocratic life, though idealized, provide vivid images of society in northwestern Europe.