Limbourg Brothers: February, Tres Riches Heures du Duc Berry 1412-16
Pestilence already started off on its butcher trip somewhere in China and reached Europe’s shores when the three miniature-painter brothers, Paul, Jan, and Herman Limbourg were born in Nijmegen, the oldest town of the Netherlands. Trader ships full of silk and goodies from Asia anchored in European harbors. Merchants from Italian cities took them from one city to the other unaware that they carried death as well.
The three brothers’ greatest patron, the Duke of Berry, was already the proud owner of a big art collection. In 1404, he commissioned an illustrated prayer book from the young brothers, which is now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The Duke was very satisfied with the brothers’ work and the Limbourgs passed into his court’s inner circle. He commissioned another book from the brothers in 1412, the Tres Riches Heures du Duc Berry, or The Book of Hours, which contains the picture February.
This book is considered the most beautiful book of the Gothic medieval world. The Book of Hours is a picture calendar illustrated with colorful paintings of biblical stories, saints’ tales, and a twelve-month calendar. Each painting depicted the particular month’s attributes, round of duties, weather, country or courtly life scenes. The Limbourg brothers illustrated these scenes with so much wit and beauty that their book seems just as real and vital today as it was when it was made. Looking at the miniatures, it seems the medieval times were not so far from the twenty-first century after all.
The rough February had nothing good in store for people on the countryside. Bare trees line the snowy road towards the village, a donkey carries firewood, and a man playing golf??? He must have been cutting the tree for firewood, but his arms and posture mimics those of a golfer. In the sheepfold the little beasties cuddle up to each other to get some warmth, a figure in pink covers his head from the cold, or perhaps just wants to scare the others in the wooden grange house.
A woman and a man are warming up before the fire, exposing their lower quarters. The other woman in vivid blue is just prettily pulling up her dress to dry. Neither of the figures have enough clothes to fight against the cold.
The Duke of Berry was certainly satisfied with the book illustrations. He had a collection of these kind of book of hours, so he did not need another prayer book, but rather an entertaining picture book. The Duke could find his own cheerful, round face on the January miniature, hiding his balding head under a furry hat. I picture the Duke with Paul, Jan, and Herman Limbourg at a courtly feast laughing at each picture. Unfortunately, not all of the pictures, because the plague, though it killed the three third of Europe already, looked for more victims.
The young brothers were working on the calendar for four years when first felt ill, as if with the flu. They had high fever and headaches. Later, swellings appeared, and in a week they were dead. Paul, Jan, and Herman. And by summertime, the Duke of Berry as well.
Other masters finished the book and it was forgotten for centuries. But books never die. The white snow still sparkles, the sky’s blue color is still beautiful, the man still cuts the tree, and the fireplace still warms up the grange house. The Limbourg brothers and the Duke of Berry still laugh over The Book of Hours.
