Petites Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry

The Petites Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry is an illuminated book of hours commissioned by John, Duke of Berry.

History

Jean de Berry commissioned six books of hours between 1375 and 1416, the first of which, the Petites Heures,^[1] contains 182 miniatures. Work started c. 1375 but was interrupted in 1380 and the book was not completed until 1385–90.^[2] It is now housed at the Bibliothèque nationale de France under the reference ms. lat. 18014.^[3]

The highly experienced limner Jean Le Noir started work on the illuminations.^[4] By the time of his death in 1380, only nine miniatures had been completed.^{[lower-alpha 1]} In 1384 the duke engaged Jacquemart de Hesdin;^[5] completion of the book was left to him^{[lower-alpha 2]} and an assistant known as the Master of the Trinity,^{[lower-alpha 3]} and to another artist known as Pseudo-Jacquemart, who painted in some of the underdrawings left by Jean le Noir as well as contributing his own compositions.^{[lower-alpha 4]} Four small miniatures have been attributed to the one whom Meiss designates as the "Fifth Master".^{[lower-alpha 5]} A single page by the Limbourg brothers, the Duke of Berry Setting off on a Trip, was added to the manuscript around 1412.^[6]

American art historian Millard Meiss distinguishes five separate contributors to the work and identifies Le Noir with "the Passion Master", an anonymous illuminator so-called because he illustrated the Passion.^[7] His characteristics have been described as "rather cool, dusty colours" and a "delightful, often humorous depiction of animals", also rocky scenery and agitated figures with expression.^[8] Jacquemart de Hesdin worked on the Hours of the Virgin. Characteristics are a reprentation of space influenced by Italian painting, and and a "more realistic rendering of reality", based on collaboration with Jan Boudolf of Bruges.^[9] The styles of Jacquemart de Hesdin and Pseudo-Jacquemart are very similar because they worked together for more than 20 years. The latter has been described as copying the style of others rather than being creative.^[10]

The duke commissioned the Petites Heures around the same time as his older brother Charles V acquired the Savoy Hours, "one of the grandest books of the period" executed in about 1335–40. To the Savoy Hours, Charles added a new cover with jeweled clasps, further texts, and copious miniatures by the Master of the Bible of Jean de Sy. Comparison of the two books reveals that Jean de France modeled the content and structure of the Petites Heures on his brother's magnificent manuscript, which had "clearly aroused his competitive spririt, and no doubt, envy."^{[11][lower-alpha 6]}

A high-quality facsimile was published in 1988, subsequently accompanied by a commentary volume by Avril, Dunlop and Yapp in 1989.^[12]

Gallery

• 

  Duke of Berry Setting off on a Trip by the Limbourg brothers (fol. 288v)
  This is the third such image commissioned by the duke of a personal itinerary with an angel pointing the way. Perhaps intended as a talisman, Husband notes that, "the duke is clearly an older man, the angel's guidance may not be entirely bound to the earthly realm."^[1]

• 

  Áve María, grátia plé[na]
  Illuminated inscription (fol. 52r)
  The reading for the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25) from the first chapter of Luke, which describes the Annunciation and ends with archangel Gabriel's greeting: "Hail Mary, full of grace".

• 

  Tale of the Three Dead and the Three Living by Pseudo-Jacquemart (fol. 282r)
  This is a relatively common form of memento mori, featured in both medieval art and poetry (cf. The Three Dead Kings).

• 

  John the Baptist in the Wilderness (fol. 208r)
  Meiss identifies this as an example of the Passion Master's later style, "which displays a new interest in the problems of relating depth"^[2] It is an early example of a new trend in depictions of John, with the harsh desert setting being replaced with a fertile landscape, most probably inspired by Fra Domenico Cavalca's Life of St. John the Baptist (1320–42), in which "the desert was described as a place of great natural beauty, full of flowers, trees, and animals."^[3]

• 

  Calendar for May by Pseudo-Jacquemart. (fol. 3r)
  The iconography in the calendar was first used by Jean Pucelle in the Belleville Breviary. Each month shows an apostle, representative of the New Testament, and a prophet of the Old Testament. The prophet submits a veiled prophecy which is explained by the apostle as an article of faith, while simultaneously, the prophet gives the apostle a stone from the synagogue, which as the months progress is reduced to a ruin.

• 

  Hours of the Passion. Le Noir's miniature showing Jesus' arrest in the garden at Gethsemane (fol. 76r)

1. ^ Husband, p.43
2. ^ Hourihane, p.133
3. ^ Tzeutschler Lurie, p. 93

See also

• Belles Heures of Jean, Duc de Berry
• Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duc de Berry
• Turin-Milan Hours, owned and perhaps commissioned by Berry

Notes

References

Sources

• Husband, Timothy B. (2008). The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belle Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. ISBN 978-1-58839-294-7. 
• Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean De Berry: The Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke (2 Vols). London: Phaidon. pp. 44, 160–69. ISBN 978-0714813097. 
• Hourihane, Colum (2002). The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture. 2. OUP. ISBN 978-0-19539-536-5. 
• Latin 18014 archivesetmanuscrits.bnf
• Tzeutschler Lurie, Ann (April 1981). "A Newly Discovered Eyckian St. John the Baptist in a Landscape". The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. 68 (4): 87–109. JSTOR 25159721. 

External links

• Digitised copy of the Petites Heures at the BNF
• Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Ms. lat. 18014 / Petites Heures of the Duke of Berry facsimilefinder.com