The contrast and compositional parallelism in the different months of Très Riches Heures is quite striking. The May-June images particularly stand out to me. May depicts an outing of nobles on horseback led by musicians. They are pictured in front of a forest with a castle in the background. The action in this image is not bound in the frame, with many figures being partially out of the frame. June depict in the foreground peasants during harvest time, with a castle in the background. The peasants are hunched over in their work, contrasted to the nobles in the previously picture sitting upon horses’ backs. The composition of the images is extremely similar, which I find very interesting. The wall of the castle in June and the tree line in May are reflective of one another. The lines in both images are very similar, giving them the same structure even though their content is very different. One depicts hard work in the fields, while the other depicts a jovial event.
The Limbourg brothers were very successful in capturing the two different social classes and their differences while still having the images be connected. These are masterfully painted, and the actions all have a great deal of life to them. This gives a cohesiveness to the different months, and gives a sense of cohesiveness to the lands under the Duc de Berry. These images effectively represent both the joys of the nobles and the important work of the peasants under them. The brightness of the images also gives a sense of unity and harmony to the images and the people portrayed in them, giving a sense of splendor to the Duc de Berry’s land.
