(Pol, Herman, and Jean; all d. 1416)
Netherlandish manuscript illuminators, active in Paris; the nephews of Jean Malouel. The Limbourg brothers first appeared in Paris in the late 1390s when we find Herman and Jean working as apprentices in the shop of a local goldsmith. In 1402, Pol, who is believed to have acted as group leader, and Jean were employed by Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, as illuminators, a position they may have received at the recommendation of their uncle who from 1396 had been working as the duke's court painter. Philip died in 1404, and the brothers went to work for Jean, duc de Berry. Their most important works they created for their new patron. These are Les Très Belles Heures du duc de Berry (c. 1410; New York; The Cloisters), added illuminations for Les Petites Heures du duc de Berry (beg. c. 1372 by Jean Le Noir and Jacquemart de Hesdin; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France), and Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (1416; Chantilly; Musée Condé), this last considered one of the greatest examples of the International Style. All three brothers died of the plague in 1416.
See also Illuminated manuscript.
Historical dictionary of Renaissance art. Lilian H. Zirpolo. 2008.