THE TRÈS RICHES HEURES

The Très Riches Heures is the most luxurious and most famous examples of manuscript illumination in late medieval Europe. Commissioned by the influential patron, Jean de Berry, in the early years of the fifteenth century, this masterpiece was executed by the three Limbourg brothers, the greatest miniaturists of the time. Their beautifully presented texts are accompanied by lush illustrations, in which the artists imaginative and decorative genius are fully revealed. Their elegant images influenced the course of painting in France and all of Northern Europe; but, as Millard Meiss comments, no painter could match the smooth perfection of their surface, their limpid colour and complex simplicity. Their art could capture the delicate transitory beauty of a newly opened flower. This edition reproduces each of the miniatures in The Très Riches Heures to scale and in full colour, capturing both the subtle colour and minute detail of these historic images.