Kasteel Well Students, Faculty Present Work at Medieval Manuscript Conference

Emerson’s European Center at Kasteel Well co-organized an international symposium centered around the most famous and precious medieval manuscript, the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. The two-day event featured a small exhibition about the manuscript’s artists, curated by Emerson students.

The Très Riches Heures, one of the treasures of the Musée Condé in Chantilly, France, was on rare display for four months in an exhibition drawing thousands of art lovers from around the world. The decoration of this manuscript, a ‘book of hours’ prayer book for private devotion, was begun around 1412 by three young artists, collectively known as the Van Lymborch brothers, who hailed from Nijmegen.

The brothers died before they could complete the manuscript, but before they did, they painted some of the “most astonishing and arresting images of their time, [and which] reshaped the history of art,” according to Kasteel Well Executive Director and Professor of Art History Rob Dückers.

Dückers was a keynote speaker and Kasteel Well faculty member Daan Lodder organized a workshop in St. Stephen’s Church, where he discussed the relevance of these 15^th-century artists to modern society.

Dückers also contributed two chapters to a volume of studies presented during the conference, and, together with Emerson students over the course of four semesters, curated a small exhibition in Gebroeders Van Lymborch Huis. Conference attendees visited this exhibition, which demonstrated a novel approach to making medieval manuscript art available for people who are visually impaired – a never before realized concept, developed and realized by Emerson students.

Read: Emerson Students Make Medieval Art Accessible to Those Without Sight

Along with Kasteel Well, the International Van Lymborch Conference was hosted by the Maelwael-Van Lymborch Studies Foundation and the Municipality of Nijmegen. The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry has returned to the safe in the vaults of the Musée Condé in Chantilly, likely not to be seen again for a long time. While no substitute for the real thing, you can leaf through the digitized manuscript in its entirety online: https://arca.irht.cnrs.fr/iiif/4856/canvas/canvas-2045964/view