Artists
Jan, Paul and Herman von Limburg
- Country:
- Netherlands
- Birth year:
- 1387
- Death year:
- 1416
The brothers Paul, Jan, and Herman von Limburg (c. 1387 Nimwegen? - 1416 Bourges?) were active as book illustrators and panel-painters. The sons of a wood carver, they were probably first trained in Dijon by their uncle, Jean Malouel, who was a painter at the court of Burgundy. He arranged for Paul and Jan to enter an apprenticeship in a Paris goldsmithy in 1399. In 1402, Paul and Jan found themselves in the service of Philip II of Burgundy (1342-1404), and after his death, the three brothers worked for the Duke of Berry (1340-1416) in Paris and Bourges. The duke commissioned a series of costly handwritten prayerbooks. Paul, probably the most talented of three brothers, may have traveled to Italy in 1410 and studied the art of Florence and Milan. The stimulation he received was combined by the brothers with French traditions. Through their realistic depiction of the social hierarchy of their time, the brothers not only transcended the traditional boundaries for book illumination, but also gave an important impulse to Netherlandish panel painting. Their works include miniatures from the Duke of Berry's Beautiful Book of Hours, 1405-1413, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.