Limbourg brothers

Franco-Flemish painters, Paul (Pol), Herman, and Jan (Hennequin, Janneken), active in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, first in Paris, then at the ducal court of Burgundy. They produced richly detailed manuscript illuminations, including two Books of Hours.

Patronized by Jean de France, duc de Berry, from about 1404, they illustrated two Books of Hours that are masterpieces of the International Gothic style, the Belles Heures about 1408 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), and Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry about 1413–15 (Musée Condé, Chantilly). Their miniature paintings include a series of scenes representing the months, presenting an almost fairytale world of pinnacled castles with lords and ladies, full of detail and brilliant decorative effects. All three brothers were dead by 1416.