Limbourg brothers summary

Limbourg brothers, or Limburg brothers, (flourished c. 1400–1416), Flemish illuminators. Sons of a sculptor, the three brothers—Pol, Herman, and Jehanequin de Limbourg—learned the goldsmith’s art in Paris and entered the service of the duke de Berry, for whom they produced one of the most famous of all illuminated manuscripts, a book of hours (private prayer book) known as the Très riches heures du duc de Berry (c. 1410–16). Since the brothers worked together, it is difficult to distinguish individual styles. They synthesized the achievements of their contemporaries into a style characterized by tall, aristocratic figures with lavish, curvilinear draperies and by highly naturalistic seasonal landscapes and scenes of peasant life. Their art did much to determine the course of early Netherlandish art. Their deaths in the same year suggest that they died of plague.