Hello, I'm Tom Campbell,
Director of The Metropolitan Museum.
And I'm here with Timothy Husband,
Curator in the Medieval Art Department and The Cloisters,
to celebrate the opening of a truly magnificent exhibition
titled "The Art of Illumination"
that is taking place here
in the basement of the Lehman Wing.
Tim, tell me a little bit about the occasion
that we're celebrating in this exhibition.
Well, this is a unique opportunity
to see all the illuminations
in one of the greatest manuscripts
to come down from the Late Middle Ages.
The manuscript is known as the Belles Heures,
or Beautiful Hours.
It's a prayer book
that was commissioned by Jean de France, duc de Berry,
one of the great patrons of all times,
and it was painted by the Limbourg Brothers.
Why are we displaying it now?
What's the occasion of this exhibition?
- Some years ago, the manuscript was taken apart
to make a facsimile
and to do some other complicated conservation work.
And once that work was done,
it seemed the perfect opportunity
to exhibit these extraordinary illuminations.
- So this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
This is our only opportunity.
- It's very dark down here. - It is a bit dark down here,
but that's for the conservation of the manuscript.
Because the book has not been exposed in its history,
it's in extraordinarily fine condition.
Shall we go look? - Okay, well, let's take a look.
So, Tim, tell me a little bit about a Book of Hours.
What exactly is it?
HUSBAND: Well, a Book of Hours is a prayer book.
It was based on the books used by the clergy
but much simplified.
And it was a way for the individual
to establish a more immediate relationship with God,
and in particular the Virgin Mary,
for at the core of every Book of Hours
is the "Hours of the Virgin."
That component begins here with the Annunciation,
you see on this spectacular page.
How would the Duke of Berry have used this book?
Well, that's an interesting question.
He didn't really need a Book of Hours
when he commissioned this one, he already had 14.
So we envisage him flicking through the book
by candlelight after dinner?
HUSBAND: We know that this manuscript was taken
to one of his favorite chateaux,
and I think he just enjoyed it quietly,
in the peace of his library,
savoring the beautiful illuminations.
And here, of course, it's the celebration of him,
so we have his coat of arms and this very elaborate border.
HUSBAND: We have his coat of arms.
And the Limbourg brothers also painted this elaborate border.
The foliage is inhabited with putti
and bears and swans,
which were the personal emblems of the duke.
It took a number of skilled craftsmen
to produce a Book of Hours.
The writing, the calligraphy, the text, was done by a scribe.
In the case of the Belles Heures,
all by one scribe.
Somebody else did the decorating of the letters, the line enders,
all the decoration you see in the text,
and yet two other people did all the rest of the borders
in the manuscript.
We should go over here,
because this is what makes the Belles Heures
completely unique amongst Books of Hours.
CAMPBELL: What do we have here?
HUSBAND: Here we have one of seven inserted picture cycles.
This one is devoted to Saint Catherine.
Now, these picture cycles were devoted to saints
that were particularly venerated by the Valois princes
or other important historical moments in Christianity.
The text is very, very minimal, and it's all about the image.
These picture cycles have absolutely nothing whatsoever
to do with a Book of Hours.
They were added,
I think because the duke could see
how prodigiously gifted these young men were,
and the manuscript became a more and more ambitious project.
CAMPBELL: How old were they when they were working on this?
HUSBAND: The eldest one of the three was only 19,
and the youngest, about 16. CAMPBELL: Extraordinary.
Do we know how long this process took?
HUSBAND: We know pretty precisely.
The duke hired the Limbourg brothers in 1404.
We believe they began work on the Belles Heures in 1405.
And we know from the entries in the duke's inventories
that the Belles Heures was finished either in late 1408
or early 1409. - Right.
Let's go on and look at some of the other pages.
HUSBAND: We have to remember we're looking at a book here,
even though it's taken apart,
which is sometimes difficult to follow,
because the order is disrupted
once the manuscript is taken apart.
The Limbourg brothers consciously were trying
to visually connect one image to the next
in a coherent narrative sequence.
CAMPBELL: Uninfluenced, uninflected by previous...
HUSBAND: Exactly. These subjects had never been depicted before.
They always gave sort of
a little whimsical surprise ending to them.
So, remembering that we're looking at a book,
you see here the Carthusian monks entering the monastery,
the charter house that they had founded.
And because most of the other images in the cycle
go from interior to interior,
you assume that when you turn the page,
that you're going to see an interior of the church.
But let's walk around,
and you'll see what we discovered.
Suddenly, we're airborne,
and you have this magnificent aerial view
of the charter house that was founded by Saint Bruno
outside of Grenoble.
You can even see above the cloisters,
the little individual cells,
which is typical of Carthusian monastic architecture.
And, apparently, it's a weekday
because the monks, you can see in the foreground,
are enjoying leisure time, rowing about the pond.
CAMPBELL: Now here, as in so many of the other illuminations,
we've got this incredibly intense colors.
Who was preparing all the paint for the artists?
Were they doing it themselves?
HUSBAND: If they were following common practice at the time,
the brothers were mixing their own paints.
Remember, they were working within princely compounds,
they were not in a workshop.
The duke spared no expense in buying materials.
And so the quality of the materials
has helped preserve the manuscript
and given these illuminations their extraordinary rich color.
Exquisite.
Let's go on to the Passion of Christ.
We've been looking at images
that are intensely colorful, jewel-like.
And yet here we have an image that's in monochrome,
with just a dash of color.
Can you talk a little bit about this?
HUSBAND: It is the moment of Christ's death,
and it follows biblical descriptions,
that the day turned to night, that the earth cracked open,
that souls rose from the earth,
a meteor-like object went flying across the sky.
This is one of three crucifixion scenes
in the Hours of the Passion.
Let's go on to some of these other cycles
Along with the illuminations,
we have a number of other objects in the exhibition.
What have you brought in to expand the context here?
HUSBAND: Well, there are a number of objects
that were produced in Paris
at the time the manuscript was in production.
These medals are a particular interest,
because the representation on this medal,
which represents the Emperor Heraclius,
is exactly the same composition
as you find in the manuscript devoted to Heraclius
and the recovery of the cross.
Some scholars believe that the Limbourg brothers
actually designed the medals and then repeated the composition
in the Belles Heures,
or the other way around.
Remember, they were living in the ducal household.
So they had all of the duke's extraordinary collections.
And this is clearly an example.
CAMPBELL: Tell me what's going on in this one, Tim.
- Well, this illumination
introduces another one of the picture cycles,
this one devoted to saints...
the hermetical Saints Anthony and Paul.
And apparently this incident is what sent these two saints off
to live in the wilderness.
They came upon the Devil, in fact,
disguised as a very attractive young lady.
CAMPBELL: A very voluptuous lady.
HUSBAND: Yes, very voluptuous--
trying to seduce this young man.
And if you look carefully,
you can see he's actually sitting on his hands,
and she is running her hand up his thigh.
And...
- Why is he bleeding from the mouth?
HUSBAND: Well, to resist temptation,
he takes the extraordinary step
of biting off the tip of his tongue
and spitting it at her.
And you can actually see that in detail
if you take a magnifying glass and look at it
- And you really need a magnifying glass
to appreciate some of the details.
They're so minute, aren't they? HUSBAND: Absolutely.
Well, the manuscript was in conservation,
I looked at every illumination under microscope.
And it reveals detail, at low power,
that you cannot possible see with the naked eye.
So they must have been using some sort of magnification.
We see the Duke in the final image, don't we?
Yes, we do.
What's important to understand about this image
is that it too has nothing to do with a Book of Hours.
The text are prayers, beseeching protection
from Christ during the duke's travels.
And the duke had 17 chateaux and residences of his own
throughout his territories,
was constantly travelling between one and the other.
And he also was living in very violent times,
and he had a rather violent family.
So he had good reason to fear for his own safety.
So this is the 178th illumination?
- Yes.
- You're not going to leave these separate works?
- No, we believe from a conservation
and a practical point of view,
it's best to bind it in three separate volumes.
But that means we can always have one volume
on exhibition at The Cloisters.
So illuminations from this manuscript
will always be visible.
So there you have it.
One of the most beautiful medieval manuscripts
that survives today laid out in entirety
here at The Metropolitan Museum for just over three months.
Tim, it's a beautiful exhibition, thank you so much.
- Thank you.