or Limburg brothers
flourished 0441; 14001416
Flemish illuminators.
Sons of a sculptor, the three brothers
Pol, Herman, and Jehanequin de Limbourg
learned the goldsmith's art in Paris and entered the service of the duke de Berry, for whom they produced one of the most famous of all illuminated manuscript s, a book of hours (private prayer book) known as the Très riches heures du duc de Berry ( 0441; 141016). Since the brothers worked together, it is difficult to distinguish individual styles. They synthesized the achievements of their contemporaries into a style characterized by tall, aristocratic figures with lavish, curvilinear draperies and by highly naturalistic seasonal landscapes and scenes of peasant life. Their art did much to determine the course of early Netherlandish art . Their deaths in the same year suggest that they died of plague.