The Belles Heures of Jean de France, duc de Berry

Why it matters

Commissioned by Jean de Berry, this book of hours is the only manuscript that the Limbourg brothers completed in its entirety. Its 172 illuminations include seven picture cycles devoted to figures and events of particular significance to the duke, painted in a luminous palette that joins a northern attention to nature with Italian ways of building figures. The folio shown is Saint Jerome in a woman’s dress, from the cycle of the saint’s life.