Dictionary of Renaissance art

LIMBOURG BROTHERS

(Pol, Herman, andJean; all d. 1416)
Netherlandish manuscript illuminators, active in Paris; the nephews ofJean Malouel. The Limbourg brothers first appeared in Paris in the late 1390s when we find Herman and Jean working as apprentices in the shop of a local goldsmith. In 1402, Pol, who is believed to have acted as group leader, and Jean were employed byPhilip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, as illuminators, a position they may have received at the recommendation of their uncle who from 1396 had been working as the duke's court painter. Philip died in 1404, and the brothers went to work forJean, duc de Berry. Their most important works they created for their new patron. These areLes Très Belles Heures du duc de Berry(c. 1410; New York; The Cloisters), added illuminations forLes Petites Heures du duc de Berry(beg. c. 1372 by Jean Le Noir and Jacquemart de Hesdin; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France), andLes Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry(1416; Chantilly; Musée Condé), this last considered one of the greatest examples of theInternational Style. All three brothers died of theplaguein 1416.
See alsoIlluminated manuscript.

  1. limbourg brothers—Three brothers Paul Herman and Jan active as painters in Paris and at the court of the dukes of Burgundystrong in the late th and early th centuries. Not much is known ab...Historical Dictionary of Renaissance