May - from the Jean de Berry Book of Hours.
Click on the image for a larger view.
In this scene, people are celebrating the "merry month of May" (joli mois de Mai). Green clothing, known as livrée de mai, was part of the celebration. Young noblemen and women - including royalty - are on horseback.
Scholars, who have closely studied de Berry's Book of Hours, believe the chateau is the Palais de la Cité in Paris.
What do we know about Books of Hours, generally, and Jean de Berry's Book of Hours (Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry), particularly?
In
the fifteenth century, a wealthy Frenchman named Jean de Berry wanted
to have a beautiful Book of Hours. People everywhere used such books
for private devotions. They contained prayers and meditations which
were appropriate for various hours of the day, days of the week, months
of the year and differing seasons. Books of Hours were very popular in
the fifteenth century.
In 1413, de Berry commissioned Dutch
painters, working in France and known to us as the Limbourg (Limburg)
brothers (Herman, Jean and Paul), to illustrate his Book of Hours. The
brothers were born in Nijmegan and all died in the same year (1416),
probably from the plague.
Their work - known today as The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry - is often called "the king of the illuminated manuscripts," but it is
more than that. Beyond the richness of color and imagery of the
paintings, we see a snapshot of life in the middle ages. That is
especially true in the full-page illustrations depicting each month of
the year (of which this image is one).
When the Limbourg
brothers died, their paintings were unfinished. Duc Charles I de
Savoie hired Jean Colombe to finish painting the manuscript which he
did (including much of the work for the November illustration), between
1485-1489.
The original Riches Heures manuscript is
stored in a museum in the French town of Chantilly, but it is so
degraded it can no longer be seen by the public. We can, however, view
digital images.
