Night

Jacquemart de Hesdin's illumination known as Night (c. 1386) comes from one of the luxurious devotional manuscripts he created for Jean, Duke of Berry, the greatest art patron of medieval France. Jacquemart was the Duke's principal painter before the Limbourg Brothers, and his innovations in naturalistic rendering and atmospheric effects helped transform Northern European manuscript painting. This nocturnal scene at the Bibliothèque nationale represents a pioneering exploration of night lighting in Western art.

Pigment and gold on parchment in the manuscript illumination format. Jacquemart de Hesdin's rendering of nocturnal atmosphere through darkened tones and selective illumination represents a remarkable technical achievement for the 1380s, anticipating later Northern developments in light and shadow.