Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

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An illuminated page from the Très Riches Heures showing a holiday for exchanging gifts from the month of January

An illuminated page from the Très Riches Heures showing a group of travellers for the month of August, and the Duc's Château d'Étampes in the background

The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry or simply the Très Riches Heures, The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry, is a very richly decorated Book of Hours (containing prayers to be said by the lay faithful at each of the canonical hours of the day) commissioned by Jean, Duc de Berry in about 1410. It is probably the most important illuminated manuscript of the 15th century, "le roi des manuscrits enluminés" ("the king of illuminated manuscripts"). The Très Riches Heures consists of 416 pages, of which about half are full page miniatures that are among the high points of International Gothic painting in spite of their small size. There are 300 decorated capital letters.

It was natural for a book of hours to contain a calendar, but the illustrations of months in the Très Riches Heures (see the accompanying illustration showing one of the pages for "January") are exceptional and innovative in their scope, subjects, composition, and artistic and technical execution. Most of them show one of the duke's castles in the background, and are filled with details of the delights and labors of the year, from the Duke's court to his peasants, a counterpart to the prayers of the hours. Each illustration is surmounted with its appropriate hemisphere showing a solar chariot, the signs and degrees of the zodiac, and numbering the days of the month and the martyrological letters for the ecclesiastic lunar calendar.

It was illuminated (painted) sometime between 1412 and 1416 by the Limbourg brothers for their patron. The writing, illuminated capitals, border decorations, and gilding was most likely executed by other specialists who remain mostly unknown. The Limbourg brothers left the book unfinished and unbound at their (and the Duc's) death in 1416. The royal art lover (and amateur painter) René d'Anjou had an unidentified artist (probably Barthélemy van Eyck) work on the book in the 1440s (the so-called Master of the Shadows), and Charles I, Duc de Savoie commissioned Jean Colombe to finish the paintings between 1485 and 1489.

The paintings of Colombe are easy to distinguish, as are those of Barthélemy d'Eyck. From the original campaign of illustration various hands have been identified, and Pognon gives the following breakdown of the main miniatures in the Calendar:^[1]

January: the courtly painter
February:the rustic painter
March:the courtly painter (landscape) and the Master of the Shadows (figures)
April:the courtly painter
May:the courtly painter
June:the rustic painter
July:the rustic painter
August:the courtly painter
September:the rustic painter (landscape)? and the Master of the Shadows (figures)
October:the Master of the Shadows
November:Jean Colombe
December:the Master of the Shadows

In addition Pognon identifies the "Pious painter" who painted many of the religious scenes later in the book during the initial campaign. There are alternative analyses and divisions proposed by other specialists.

The book is currently held by the Musée Condé, Chantilly (Ms. 65).