Naughty February For The Rich Duke Of Berry

The title of Duke of Berry was created for junior members of the French royal family. The first such Duke was John and he was an art lover and an extravagant one. He was rich even by rich standards, owning a large part of France including the Loire Valley with all its castles and chateaux. One of his other extravagant possessions was his own illuminated Book of Hours, or book of hourly prayers, illustrated especially for him by the then famous painters, the Limbourg Brothers. Les Tres riches Heures du Duc de Berry (The very rich hours of the Duke of Berry) was the most expensive book owned at the time and is also probably the most important illuminated manuscript of the 15th century. His book contained a calendar for each month with an attached illustration done just for the Duke. Above we have February...the month of the naughty servants. The February page was very unusual because it shows an outdoor winter scene and is actually one of the earliest snow scenes ever painted in history. The Limbourg Brothers were probably going out on a limb in choosing a snow scene and it is noteworthy that the Duke is not included in this scene...just in case a picture of snow ends up being a flop. Instead, happy peasants are shown carrying out the cold February chores. Using peasants gave the artists more room for play and also gave the Duke a way to show off his many possessions, people being one of them. Of special interest and "illuminating" of the times is the scene at the bottom left where two women and a lucky gentleman are warming themselves by the fireside and the gentleman seems to have forgotten his underwear on this chilly day. "Why?" you ask. Would people such as the Duke engage in such behavior? Certainly not, but the peasants in this illustration happily do, reinforcing the Duke's idea that the poor were depraved as well as deprived. If they were more decent, they would have been born into good families with money, like ole Duke. No need for the people to worry about these common folk and their hard lot in life, and thank goodness there are people like Duke John around to own them.
Duke John probably had nothing directly to do with this portrayal and the Limbourg brothers probably did not feel this way about the peasants themselves. More likely, the brothers were getting to know what twirled their employer's skirts by the time they began painting February and they knew this scene would reinforce Duke's high and mighty attitudes, thereby increasing his pleasure...and their pocketbooks. In other words..there were good admen even in the 15th century.