Les Belles Heures du duc de Berry

Published on the occasion of the exhibition The Belles Heures of the Duke of Berry, Louvre Museum (April 5 - June 25, 2012). A sumptuous patron, the son of a king, Jean de France, Duke of Berry, like his brother Charles V and his brothers the Dukes of Anjou and Burgundy, collected and had a very large number of works of art made throughout his life, known thanks to several inventories still preserved today. Between 1405 and 1409, he called upon the brothers Pol, Jean and Herman de Limbourg, originally from Nijmegen, who had previously worked for his brother Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, for the decoration of a manuscript known as the "Belles Heures". This book of hours remains one of the most remarkable of the Duke of Berry, not only because of the exceptional beauty of its illuminations, but also because of the innovations that the Limbourg brothers brought, particularly in the compositions, the design of the space and the narration. Reproduced in its entirety in the catalogue, the "Belles Heures of the Duke of Berry" are accompanied, in order to better understand the context of their creation and the influence of their illuminations, by 25 major works from French and foreign collections ("Parement of Narbonne", "Great Round Pietà" by Jean Malouel, "Gilded Bronze Prophet"...). On the occasion of the restoration of the binding of this manuscript, preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of New York (Cloisters), 47 detached bifolios from the "Belles Heures of the Duke of Berry" will be exceptionally exhibited and presented to the visiting public before their final reassembly.