The Images within the Très Riches Heures are not very religious. In fact, they are secular of nature. This is very interesting seeing as it is a book of hours in which, ideally, the owner of it would pray to every day. The owner and commissioner of the Très Riches Heures was the Duc de Berry, who was extremely wealthy at the time and controlled vast amounts of land. This is all displayed in one form or another through the Très Riches Heures, seeing as each miniature is a landscape in which a different castle is shown each time, as well as the great detail in the illuminations. However, I am not fully convinced that the Très Riches Heures is the best example of a book of hours – even if it is extremely lavish in its quality and detail – because it is a secular book.
In my eyes, books of hours should depict scenes that remind the reader of certain events that are religiously important. On the other hand, the miniatures in the Très Riches Heures show the seasonal events of the peasants and wealthy, not of religious scenes. Not to say that the Très Riches Heures is not valuable, because it is. But it gives more of a glimpse into how seasonal changes affected the population in and around modern-day Paris than it does with a proper religious book of hours, because one is secular and the other is not.
I agree! Because books of hours were meant for the wealthy, I think that the scenes should depict religious events, not strictly secular ones that could be understood by a more general population. Something about depicting a religious event makes the book seem exclusive and worthy of all of the time and effort it took to construct one. That said, I still really enjoyed the images for their use of color and action as a means of illustrating the seasons.
While the Tres Riches Hueres may not be the prime example of a book of hours, it is a good example of an illuminated manuscript. I believe that in the Tres Riches Hueres, the Ducde Berry’s power and wealth replaced the typical religious icons. The book was a praise to the Duc de Berry’s fortune rather than religion.