Brothers of Limburg
The Limburg brothers ( Paul , Johan and Herman ) were Dutch miniature painters . They wrote the Book of Hours Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry , but left their work unfinished back when all three of them in 1416 - as well as their clients - to a disease died.
Life
Her grandfather Johannes de Lymborgh probably came from Limburg to Nijmegen , at that time the capital of the Duchy of Geldern . His son Arnold worked as a wood carver at the ducal court. Around 1385 he married Mechtild Maelwael from a family of coat of arms painters. Her children were Hermann ( Hermant in French sources, * around 1385), Paul (Polleke or Polequin in France, born 1386 or 1387) and Johan (Johanneke or Jacquemin , Gillequin , Jehanequin in France, * probably 1388), Rutger and Arnold as well a sister, Greta.
Around 1398, after the death of her father, her mother sent her to her brother Johan Maelwael ( Jehan Maleuel in French sources), a coat of arms painter who worked at the French and Burgundian courts: Herman and Johan learned the trade of goldsmith in Paris. At the end of 1399 they set out on a visit to Nijmegen, but were arrested in Brussels - there was currently a war . Her mother was unable to raise the 55 golden ecus (escuz) ransom . The guild of the Brussels goldsmiths began to collect the money, but the sum was then paid by Philip II, Duke of Burgundy , who commissioned her uncle. The two brothers were released in May 1400.
Preserved documents indicate that Paul and Johan were contracted by Philip for four years in February 1402 to color a Bible exclusively for him, perhaps the Bible Moralisée , Ms.fr.166, in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris which is undoubtedly an early work by the brothers. Philip died in 1404 before the work could be completed.
Later that year, Herman, Paul and Johan worked for Duke Johann von Berry , a brother of the late Philipp. He was an exceptional art collector specializing primarily in books. Her first commission, between 1408 and 1409, was to illuminate a book of hours that is now known as the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry . This book on vellum , executed in ink, tempera and gold leaf, contains 172 24 × 17 cm pages. It is now kept in The Cloisters , a sub-museum of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York . In 2010 all pages of the book of hours were exhibited in the exhibition: The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry in New York.
The Duke was so enthusiastic about the result of their work that he entrusted them with a far more ambitious project, another book of hours known as Très Riches Heures, which is today regarded as the ultimate masterpiece of medieval book illumination. It is as Ms . 65 in the Musée Condé in Chantilly Castle .
Paul in particular developed such a good relationship with the Duke that he became his personal servant (valet de chambre) and was presented with jewels and a house in Bourges . Paul fell in love with a young girl, Gillette la Mercière, but whose parents disapproved of the contact. The duke in turn kept her locked up and only released her under pressure from the king. Nevertheless, Paul and Gillette married in 1411 - Paul was 24 years old and the bride 12. The marriage remained childless.
In the first half of 1416 Johann von Berry and the three brothers from Limburg died of the plague , the Très Riches Heures remained unfinished.
Afterlife
An unknown artist (perhaps Barthélemy d'Eyck ) was working on the work in the 1440s , when it was apparently owned by René of Anjou , completed in 1485 by Jean Colombe for the House of Savoy .
The work of the Brothers of Limburg was largely inaccessible until the 19th century. Nevertheless, they set standards for the next generation of painters, also beyond the dying genre of miniature painting.
A fourth, previously unknown book by the Limburg brothers was rediscovered in the archives of the Castelnau family in 2013 .
literature
- Timothy Bates Husband: The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry , Metropolitan Museum, New York 2009 ISBN 978-0-300-13671-5
- Rob Duckers and Pieter Roelofs (eds.), Gebroeders von Limburg . Exhibition catalog, Ludion, Nijmegen 2005, ISBN 90-5544-576-2
- Rob Dückers, Pieter Roelofs, Liesbeth Kamerbeek: The Brothers van Limburg. Nijmegen master at the French court 1400–1416. Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmwegen 2005. Exhibition catalog (small format, not paginated, approx. 120 pages, without ISBN) With b / w illus.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Andreas Platthaus : The 12 Million Euro Book. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, August 25, 2016, accessed on May 19, 2020 .