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Limbourg brothers

Meiss

• 66 - Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry discovered in 1856 & has been written about since but no comprehensive study until Meiss; monograph written in 1904 (Paul Durrieu but color facsimile not available until 1969; Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry partial reproductions only available after 1953 (Jean Porcher's monograph).
• 66 - Bible moralisee & Breviary of Jean sans peur (Philip the Good)) available for study at Bibliothèque nationale de France & British Museum , yet received little scholarly examination.
• 66 - Meiss believes disentangling the three Limbourg brothers' stylistic intricacies to be more complex and problematic than the van Eyck brothers - all miniatures in short 16 year career (158 from Belles Heures; 129 Tres Riches; 384 Bible moralisee; tot = 671 produced by three painters at start of career)
• 66 - Remarkable amount of documentation exists for the Limbourgs > more than other painters of early 15th c; entire set of documentation in Meiss's appendices (helpful)
• 67 - Hermaunt Meleuel & Jacquemin Malauel
• 67 - boys' father = sculptor, had died that year, mother was poor but sister to Philip the Bold's valet de chambre Jean Malouel
• 67 - 6 months in prison in Brussels; May 2 1500 Philip to have boys released
• 67 - various diminutives for Johan: Jacquemin, Gillequin, Jannequin, etc; Herman generally unchanged, Paul not yet recorded, aka Polequin - archives give the boys the uncle's surname - father was Limbourg, from Aachen
• 67 - boys recorded in 1402 to produce Bible moralisée Français 166 - Paul & jean, Philipe wrote re "trés belle et notable Bible" - scribe's work still ongoing - boys contracted to complete illuminations as quickly as possible and not less than completion in 4 years w/ no other work accepted during that period
• 68 - Paul & Herman paid 10 sous daily, to work every day, work to be supervised by Bold's physician Jean Durant
• 68 - uncle was present in Paris at this time & may have petioned bold to hire nephews
  • • an entire chapter about the bible & addl chrono beginning p. 81
• 68 - discussion of employment w/ Philip; Philip's death & miniature of Philip that burned in 1858; Berry had his tomb in Bourges finished after Philip's death; the charter for which includes a miniature of Philip attributed to Limbourgs >> try to find; more on this & chrono on p. 102;
• 68 - evidence for moving from Philip (Burgundian) to Berry
• 68 - Discusses dating of Belles Heures & according to documented evidence; Berry's 1408-1409 inventory item 960 matches Cloisters mss.
• 69 - brothers were working on Belles Heures possibly as early as 1405, definitely by 1406 - whether all three or not cannot be determined
• 69 - Pol/Paul is referred to in 1408 document as German painter (paintre alemant) - document to do w/ the house gifted to him
• 69 - not unusual to gift a house to a preferred artist; i.e Philip the Bold lent a house to Claus Sluter; however the house gifted to P. Limbourg had been Berry's treasurer
• 69 - P.'s wife Gillete de Mercier cont to live in house after his 1416 death
• 69 - Some years after her father's death & mother's remarriage to a Parisian gold merchant who supplied precious metal to Berry, Gillette was "held" by Berry against mother's will; parliament & king intervened & "an accommodation worked out"; at age 12 when she became marriagable according to canon law she married P. Limbourg at about the same time he received the house, c. 1411
• philip's bible, meiss 82ff/husband 36ff

Ducker (2005) - catalogue (prob should be cited as a chapter)

• BN166, commissioned by Philip is a verbatim copy of John II of France's bible moralisee 85
• not a bible but a retelling of bible stories w/ moralizations 85
• King John’s bible = BNF 167 85
• Format began in the 13th cent.; includes bible passages/commentaries/ moralizations 85
• Each passage is illustrated, fully illustrated bible moralisee = 5424 miniatures 85
• B/c of amount of work & expense only commissioned by royalty in France 85
• Four pairs of miniature medallions per page (folio) 85
• By 14th c. Latin text paired w/ French translation, illustrations often grisaille 85
• 167 has 5122 miniatures, 166 modelled on it (get the number of miniatures completed) 85
• Limbourg bros began illuminating after text written 85
• Completed 3 quires (folios 1-24), completed underdrawings 4th quire (fols 25-32) 85
• Work halted on Philip's death, resumed 1450s & 1490s - but still unfinished 1518 inventory 86
• several compositions similar to Belles Heures ... 90
• the miniatures in the early folios are in grisaille (as typical of these bibles (where is that?? p. 85)), but after folio 2 there is increasing use of color, skies become bluer, and by f 22 use of underdrawing 92
• specific details such as "oriental costumes", iconographies, scientific devices, etc seen in later work. 92

Husband (on shelf)

• 12+ records exists documenting Limbourg payments or gifts received from Berry between 1408 and 1416 - when Berry & Limbourgs died 34
• Berry gifted Paul two diamond rings and an emerald ring in the shape of a bear between 1 Jan 1408 & 1 Jan 1413; he paid Paul 100 ecus to buy clothes "so he could clothe himself and be more honorable in the duke's employ"; in 1414 or 15 he gifted all the brothers with diamond rings 33-34
• By 1415 all the brothers had been elevated to varlet de chambre and received from Berry a ruby ring as security for a loan the brothers had made to their patron. Husband says, "It is a measure of the special relationship they enjoyed that the illuminators were in a postition to lend their princely patron money". The brother reciprocated the lavish gifts, i.e, a jeweled agate saltcellar Berry received from Paul 34
• Paul received a large house in Bourges from Berry described as "as suitable as housing a nobleman of the noble blood" 34

sources

• Met info good for Berry overview
• Breviary
• breviary??