Created between 1405 and 1408 or 1409, probably in Paris, the Belles Heures, or Beautiful Hours, a private devotional book, is one of the most sumptuous manuscripts to have come down to us from the Middle Ages. Commissioned by Jean de France, duc de Berry from the Limbourg brothers, the most gifted artists of their time, it is the only manuscript completed by them in its entirety. The richly illustrated text is enhanced by seven unprecedented picture cycles devoted to Christian figures or events that held special significance for the duke. Using a luminous palette, the artists blended an intimate Northern vision of nature with Italianate modes of figural articulation. The keen interest in the natural world and the naturalistic means of representing it, so striking in the 172 illuminations, foreshadow the work of Jan van Eyck and the ensuing generations of outstanding 15th-century painters in the South Netherlands.
Folio 184v, Saint Jerome in a Woman's Dress. Please note that not all folios have photographs and not all the images are in order of the manuscript.
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Folio 184v, Saint Jerome in a Woman's Dress. Please note that not all folios have photographs and not all the images are in order of the manuscript.
Folio exlibris recto
Folio 2v, January
Folio 13r, December: Slaughtering a Boar - Capricorn
Folio 15r, Saint Catherine in Her Study
Folio 15v, Saint Catherine Refuses to Worship the Idol
Folio 17r, Saint Catherine Tied to a Column
Bifolium 17v-18r, Saint Catherine; Empress Faustina Beheaded
Folio 18v, Angels Destroy the Wheels of Knives
Folio 20r, Angels Carry the Body of Saint Catherine to Mount Sinai
Folio 20v
Folio 24 verso and 25 recto
Folio 30r, The Annunciation
Folio 37v, text
Folio 41 verso 42 recto
Folio 42v, The Visitation
Folio 48v, The Nativity
Folio 52r, The Annunciation to the Shepherds
Folio 54v, The Adoration of the Magi
Folio 57r, The Presentation in the Temple
Folio 57 verso 58 recto
Folio 59v, The Massacre of the Innocents
Folio 63r, The Flight into Egypt
Folio 65 verso and 66 recto
Folio 72r, David Flees from Absalom
Bifolium: 73-74r - Great Litany Process - End of the Plague
Folio 77v, text
Folio 80r, Descent from the Cross
Folio 83 verso 84 recto
Folio 90r, text
Folio 96v, Bishop Hugh Receiving Bruno and his Companions
Folio 91v, The Trinity; The Duchess in Prayer
Folio 91v, detail, The Duchess of Berry in Prayer
Folio 95r, The Burial of Diocrès
Folio 99r, Cemetery
Bifolium: 110-111r - Text
Bifolium: 118-119r - Text
Bifolium: 126-127r - Text
Folio 131v, The Mocking of Christ
Folio 132, The Flagellation
Folio 133r, text
Folio 134 verso 135 recto
Folio 135v, Christ before Pilate
Folio 136r, Pilate Offers to Release Christ
Folio 136v, text
Folio 138r, Pilate Washes His Hands
Folio 142 recto 143 verso
Folio 149v, The Deposition
Folio 149v, The Lamentation
Bifolium: 150-151r - Text
Folio 152r, The Entombment
Folio 152v, Soldiers at the Tomb
Bifolium 158v-159r, Saint John the Baptist; Saint John the Evangelist
Folio 163r, Saint Vincent Cast to the Beasts
Folio 163v, Saint Clement Cast into the Sea
Folio 164v, Saint Eustace Loses his Sons
Folio 166 verso 167 recto
Folio 167r, Saint George Slaying the Dragon
Folio 169r, Saint Martin and the Beggar
Folio 170r, Saint Anthony of Padua Stills a Storm
Folio 170v, text
Folio 173r, Saint Louis before Damietta
Folio 183r, Saint Jerome Studying Classical Philosophers
Folio 184r, Saint Jerome is Ordained as a Cardinal
Bifolium: 185-186r - Saint Jerome Contemplates the Holy Sepulchre - Saint Jerome is Tempted by Dancing Girls
Folio 187r, The Lion finds the Missing Ass
Folio 187v, Saint Jerome Translating the Bible
Folio 189v, The Sick Attending the Funeral of Saint Jerome
Folio 191r, Saint Paul the Hermit Sees a Christian Tempted
Folio 192r, Saint Anthony Receives Directions from a Satyr
Folio 193v, Lions Help Saint Anthony Bury Saint Paul
Folio 194v, The Death of Saint Anthony
Folio 198 verso 199 recto
Folio 206 verso 207 recto
Folio 211r, John the Baptist in the Wilderness
Bifolium: 214-215r - Text - Death of Simon Magus, the duke's arms
Folio 218v, text
Folio 221r, detail, Mass for All Souls
Folio 220 verso 221 recto
Folio 221r, Mass for All Souls
Folio 223r
Folio 223v, The Duke on a Journey
Folio 223v, detail, The Duke on a Journey
Bifolium: 224-225r - Text
Artwork Details
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Title:The Belles Heures of Jean de France, duc de Berry
Artist:The Limbourg Brothers (Franco-Netherlandish, active France, by 1399–1416)
Date:1405–1408/1409
Geography:Made in Paris, France
Culture:French
Medium:Tempera, gold, and ink on vellum
Dimensions:Single leaf, Overall: 9 3/8 x 6 11/16 in. (23.8 x 17 cm); Double leaf, Overall: 9 3/8 x 13 7/16 in. (23.8 x 34.1 cm)
Classification:Manuscripts and Illuminations
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1954
Object Number:54.1.1a, b
Jean, Duke of Berry d. 1416 (1408/09–d. 1416; item no. 960 in 1413 inventory) ; Yolande, Queen of Sicily and Duchess of Anjou (1417–d.1443) ; Pierre-Gabriel Bourlier, baron d'Ailly (before 1879–sold by 1884) ; Baron Edmond James de Rothschild, Paris (by 1884–d. 1934) ; by descent, Baron Maurice Edmond Charles de Rothschild France, 1881–1957, Paris and Geneva (1936–1954) ; [ Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York (consigned by owner December 11, 1952–sold 1954)]
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Treasures from Medieval France," Novemer 16, 1966–January 29, 1967.
Hamburger Kunsthalle. "Meister Francke und die Kunst um 1400," August 30–October 19, 1969.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971.
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. "Les pleurants dans l'art du Moyen âge en Europe," July 3–September 12, 1971.
Morgan Library & Museum. "French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry," February 10–April 1, 1972.
National Gallery, London. "Pisanello: Painter to the Renaissance Court," October 24, 2001–January 13, 2002.
Paris. Musée du Louvre. "L'art parisien sous Charles VI," March 22, 2004–July 12, 2004.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557)," March 23–July 4, 2004.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Art from the Court of Burgundy, 1364–1419," May 27, 2004–January 9, 2005.
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. "L'Art à la cour de Bourgogne: Le Mécénat de Philippe le Hardi et de Jean sans Peur (1364-1419)," October 24, 2004–January 9, 2005.
Museum het valkhof nijmegen. "The Limbourg Brothers. Nijmegen Masters at the French Court 1400-1416," August 28–November 20, 2005.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Art of Illumination," March 1–June 13, 2010.
Rijksmuseum. "Johan Maelwael," October 6, 2017–January 7, 2018.
Los Angeles. J. Paul Getty Museum. "The Renaissance Nude," October 30, 2018–January 27, 2019.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "The Renaissance Nude," March 2–June 2, 2019.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350," October 13, 2024–January 26, 2025.
London. National Gallery. "Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350," March 8–June 22, 2025.
Delisle, Léopold. Mélanges de paléographie et de bibliographie. Paris: Champion, 1880. pp. 283–93.
Delisle, Léopold. "Les Livres d'Heures du duc de Berry." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 2nd ser., 29, no. 4 (April 1884). no. XXIV, p. 106; no. X, pp. 399–400.
Champeaux, Alfred de, and Paul Gauchery. Les travaux d'art exécutés pour Jean de France. Paris: Champion, 1894. pp. 119, 135–37, 144.
Guiffrey, Jean. Inventaires de Jean duc de Berry (1401-1416). Vol. 1. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1894. no. 960, p. 253.
Durrieu, Paul. "Les 'Belles Heures' de Jean de France duc de Berry." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 3rd ser., 35, no. 4 (1906). pp. 265–92.
Schilling, Rosy. "A Book of Hours from the Limbourg Atelier." Burlington Magazine 81, no. 473 (August 1942). pp. 194, 197.
Pächt, Otto. "Early Italian Nature Studies and the Early Calendar Landscape." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 13, nos. 1/2 (1950). pp. 39–40.
Panofsky, Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953. pp. 29–32, 34, 43–45, 369 (p. 27 n. 1); 370 (p. 29 n. 3); 370 (p. 30 n. 1); 371 (p. 31 n. 1); 372 (p. 32 n. 2); 373 (p. 34 n. 5); 377 (p. 44 n. 1); 379 (p. 47 n. 3); 386 (p. 62 n. 7); 412 (p. 134 n. 4).
Porcher, Jean. Les belles heures de Jean de France, duc de Berry. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1953. pl. I–CLVIII, discussed throughout.
Porcher, Jean. Les manuscrits à peintures en France du XIIIe au XVIe siècle. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1955. p. 70.
Freeman, Margaret. "A Book of Hours Made for the Duke of Berry." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 15, no. 4 (December 1956). pp. 93–99, 102–104.
Bruyn, Josua. Van Eyck Problemen: De Levensbron, het Werk van een Leerling van Jan van Eyck. Utrecht: Haentjens Dekker & Gumbert, 1957. p. 76 n. 3.
Comstock, Helen. "The Duke of Berry's 'Belles Heures'." The Connoisseur 139 (April 1957). pp. 133–34.
Neugass, Fritz. "Das Metropolitan erwarb ein Studenbuch des Duc de Berry." Die Weltkunst 28, no. 2 (January 15, 1958). pp. 5–7.
Rorimer, James J., and Margaret B. Freeman, ed. The Belles Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry, Prince of France. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1958. Discussed and ill. throughout.
Freeman, Margaret B. "The Annunciation from a Book of Hours for Charles of France." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 19, no. 4 (December 1960). pp. 105, 109, fig. 6.
Randall Jr., Richard H. A Cloisters Bestiary. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1960. p. 23.
Rorimer, James J., and Margaret B. Freeman, ed. Das schöne Stundenbuch des Herzogs von Berry. Munich: Droemersche Verlagsanstalt Th. Knaur Nachf., 1960. Discussed and ill. throughout.
Verdier, Philippe. "A Medallion of the 'Ara Coeli' and the Netherlandish Enamels of the Fifteenth Century." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 24 (1961). pp. 10–15, fig. 5, 6, 8.
Behling, Lottlisa. "Ergänzungen zu Form und Symbolik von Verkündigung und Goldtempel des Isenheimer Altars." Zeitschrift für Kunstwissenshaft (1962). p. 45, fig. 7.
Faye, C. U., and W. H. Bond. Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. New York: Bibliographical Society of America, 1962. pp. 327–28.
Meiss, Millard. "French and Italian Variations on an Early Fifteenth-Century Theme: St. Jerome and His Study." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 6th ser., 62 (September 1963). pp. 147, 150, 151, 156–62, fig. 5, 8, 10, 12, 13.
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Rorimer, James J. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Medieval Art in Fort Tryon Park. 3rd revised ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1963. pp. ix, 150–52.
Hoving, Thomas. "The Thread of Patronage: The Medieval Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters." Apollo 82, no. 43 (September 1965). pp. 176–77, fig. 1, pl. VII.
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Stoddard, Whitney S. Monastery and Cathedral in France: Medieval Architecture, Sculpture, Stained Glass, Manuscripts, the Art of the Church Treasuries. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1966. pp. 348–53, 359, fig. 405.
Young, Bonnie. "A Jewel of St. Catherine." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 24, no. 10 (June 1966). pp. 316–317, 322, fig. 1–3, 9–10.
Gerson, Horst. "Die Brüder Paul, Hermann und Johann aus Limburg." In Kindlers Malerei Lexikon. Vol. 4. Zurich: Kindler, 1967. pp. 156–57.
Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke. Volume 1, Text. London: Phaidon Press, 1967. pp. 44, 55, 71, 92, 97, 112, 127, 178, 202, 218, 235, 238, 246, 250, 257, 265, 270, 273, 292, 294, 297, 311, 402 n. 60.
Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke. Volume 2, Plates. London: Phaidon Press, 1967. fig. 261, 495–496, 518, 746, 776, 785.
Northrup, Marguerite, ed. The Easter story from the Gospels. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1967. fig. ill. pp. 14, 28.
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Marrow, James H. "Dutch Manuscript Illumination before the Master of Catherine of Cleves: the Master of the Morgan Infancy Cycle." Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 19 (1968). p. 98 n. 82.
Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Boucicaut Master. London: Phaidon Press, 1968. pp. 28, 30–32, 36, 66, 82, 129, 137, 145 n. 61, 148 n. 7, fig. 126, 145, 146, 155, 157, 487.
Meiss, Millard. "La Mort et l'office des morts à l'époque du Maître de Boucicaut et des Limbourg." Revue de l'Art 1 (1968). pp. 17–25, fig. 6, 12, 15–16.
Young, Bonnie. "The Monkeys & the Peddler." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 26, no. 10 (June 1968). p. 452, fig. 16.
Puttfarken, Thomas, ed. Meister Francke und die Kunst um 1400. Hamburg: Hamburger Kunsthalle, 1969. no. 38, pp. 72–73, pl. 50–51.
Longnon, Jean, and Raymond Cazelles. The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry: Musée Condé, Chantilly. New York: George Braziller, 1969. pp. 13, 20.
Knauer, Elfriede R. "A Cvbicvlo Avgvstorvm: Bemerkungen zu Rogier van der Weydens Bladelin-Altar." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 33, no. 1 (1970). p. 335, fig. 3.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. New York: Dutton Publishing, 1970. no. 167, p. 188, misidentified as 54.1.2.
Klingender, Francis Donald. Animals in Art and Thought to the End of the Middle Ages. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1971. pp. 457, 459, fig. 282.
Meiss, Millard, and Sharon Off. "The Bookkeeping of Robinet d'Estampes and the Chronology of Jean de Berry's Manuscripts." The Art Bulletin 53, no. 2 (June 1971). pp. 225–35.
Les pleurants dans l'art du Moyen âge en Europe. Dijon: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, 1971. p. 84.
Philip, Lotte Brand. The Ghent Altarpiece and the Art of Jan van Eyck. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971. p. 28, fig. 73.
Deuchler, Florens. "The Cloisters: Ein Museum für mittelalterliche Kunst in New York." Du 32, no. 2 (1972). p. 135.
Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourgs and their Contemporaries. Volume 1, Text. New York: G. Braziller, 1974. pp. 102–41, 225, 331–36, 416, 454 n. 237, 467 n. 535, 469 n. 576, specific miniatures discussed throughout.
Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourgs and their Contemporaries. Volume 2, Illustrations. New York: G. Braziller, 1974. fig. 329, 333, 341, 343, 363–64, 371, 385–86, 389, 397–98, 402–03, 406–07, 409–411, 415–18, 420–23, 426–28, 430–31, 434–36, 438–39, 441–42, 444–45, 448, 451–52, 454–55, 463, 466–68, 470, 472–74, 476–79, 485–88, 492–93, 496–99, 503, 637–68, 641, 687, 693, .
Meiss, Millard, and Elizabeth H. Beatson. The Belles Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry. New York: George Braziller, 1974. Discussed throughout.
Plummer, John. "A Blank Page in the Belles Heures." In Gatherings in Honor of Dorothy E. Miner, edited by Ursula E. McCracken, Lilian M. C. Randall, and Richard H. Randall Jr. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1974. pp. 193–202, fig. 1–4.
Avril, François. "La peinture française au temps de Jean de Berry." Revue de l'Art 28 (1975). pp. 40–52, fig. 4, 16–17.
Raggio, Olga, ed. Patterns of Collecting: Selected Acquisitions, 1965-1975; Explanatory Texts. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975. p. 18.
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Thomas, Marcel. The Golden Age: Manuscript Painting at the Time of Jean, Duke of Berry. New York: G. Braziller, 1979. pp. 26, 27, 86, 88, fig. XIV, pl. 24, 25.
Farber, Allen S. "A Study of the Secondary Decoration of the Belles Heures and Related Manuscripts." PhD diss., Cornell University, 1980. Discussed throughout.
Friedmann, Herbert. A Bestiary for Saint Jerome: Animal Symbolism in European Religious Art. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1980. pp. 34–35, fig. 5–9.
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Bell, Susan Groag. "Medieval Women Book Owners: Arbiters of Lay Piety and Ambassadors of Culture." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 7, no. 4 (Summer 1982). p. 748, 761, fig. 10.
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Brooke, Christopher Nugent Lawrence. The Medieval Idea of Marriage. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. p. 284, fig. 7.
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Lochrie, Karma. Margery Kempe and Translations of the Flesh. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991. pp. 184–87, figs. 1–2.
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Koch-Hillebrecht, Manfred. Museen in den USA : Gemälde. Munich: Hirmer, 1992. p. 105.
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Curator Keith Christiansen explores the mixture of French and Italian painting styles that influenced artistic production in fifteenth-century Milan, and the impact of this cross-cultural approach on the work of Stefano da Verona.
Deirdre Larkin, managing horticulturist of The Met Cloisters, discusses the origins of pannage, the practice of bringing pigs to the wood to forage, and its significance in medieval art and life.
Master of Claude de France ((active from ca.1508–1520))
ca. 1510–1515
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