Les Tres Riches Heures du Cuc de Berry

The Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry is usually referred to as “le roi des manuscrits illumines” or “the King of the illuminated manuscripts”, is a classic example of a medieval book of hours. A book of hours is a prayer book used but laymen for private devotion, containing prayers or meditation appropriate to certain hours of the day, days of the week, months or seasons. They also often included other supplementary texts such as, calendars, prayers, psalms and masses for certain holy days. Because manuscripts were very expensive and treasured items, only the wealthy (nobles mostly) owned and used books of hours. I will be focusing on the calendar section, which was painted some time between 1412 and 1416 and is arguably the most beautiful part of the manuscript.

The Tres Riches Heures was commissioned by Jean, Duc de Berry in 1413. It was painted by the Limbourg brothers who left it unfinished at their (and the Duc’s) death in 1416. The Duc Charles I de Savoie commissioned Jean Colombe to complete the painting of the manuscript between 1485 and 1489. The Limbourg brothers, Paul, Herman and Jean, came from Nimwegen in what is now Flanders but were generally referred to as G

August, the month of hawking. Nobles are carrying falcons and are going in style. They are riding beautiful white, black and gray horses, and are wearing beautiful blue and black garments. Note the woman on the left, she’s wearing a pastel pink dress that stands out and contrasts against the black garment of her companion. Behind them in the background peasants are harvesting and swimming in the river at the base of the Chateau d’Etampes.

In January, the month of giving gifts, we see a party-like festival seine, with royally dressed people exchanging gifts around a table covered with food. In the background there is what appears to be a battle going on, knights on horseback with different colored banners doing battle. The colors such as the green the man in the foreground is wearing vary in shade and intensity, and are sometimes very bold as in the red in the mans gamete at the end of the table. The sky is a lighter shade of blue and there is something written across it. There is a castle in the distance of classic medieval style. The Duc Jean de Berry himself can be seen on the right, and the best example of the detail is found in the gold fringe of his brilliant blue robe.

Now lets take a look at the calendar section. Each month has two arches painted in gold and separated into segments that represented different days, weeks, seasons and such. Between the outer arch of gold and the inner is a zodiacal tympanum with a brilliant cobalt blue background, with the different zodiac symbols (which change with each month) engulfed in a sea of stars. Within the inner arch, again in brilliant blue is a man on a horse drawn cart reaching for the sun, a bright yellow-gold sun, seemingly just out of his reach. This same image appears in each month of the calendar which leads me to believe it has some symbolic meaning. There’s a distinct line separating the calendar section from the pictures, possible intended to be symbolic of the separation between what is in the heavens from what is on earth.

Some topics in this essay:
Duc Jean, Middle Eastern, Riches Heures, Clain Poitiers, Colombe Limbourgs, Paris It’s, International Gothic, Jean Duc, Chapelle Royal, Colombe’s Limbourgs, riches heures, tres riches, tres riches heures, duc de, blue sky, de berry, bright blue, duc de berry, cobalt blue, cobalt blue sky, chateau de, du duc, heures du, heures du duc, du duc de,