Since it is recommended on the website of the Valkhof museum to visit the exhibition on a weekday (excluding Mondays, when the museum is closed) and in the morning and we were only free in the weekend, we feared a long queue in front of the museum. Luckily, it was not this bad. At the cash-desk, all visitors get a ticket on which a period of ten minutes is mentioned in which they are allowed to visit the treasury, the room where the original pages from Les Belles Heures de Jean de Berry are exhibited. You have to be at the treasury five minutes in advance, which might mean that you have to hurry through the preceding part of the exhibition and struggle your way back to it later. The booklet you get with your ticket is very handy, but it might take a while before you figure out which explanation belongs to which work of art, because not every exhibition subject is numbered and if they are, the numbers are hardly visible in the semi-darkness of the rooms. The golden tip: numbers 93 - 102 in the booklet belong to the pages that are shown in the treasury. Two other nuisances remain: 1) people who brought a magnifying glass so they can see the miniatures better while they block the view of all other people. 2) People who don't know anything about miniatures but despite of that loudly explain their interpretation to the people next to them, or read the explanatory texts aloud. One way or another, it isn't possible to study the miniatures extensively when you know you have to leave after ten minutes (it is allowed however to get yourself another ticket for ten minutes). If you want to study the miniatures in a comprehensive way, the best option is to bring a load of money and buy yourself the catalogue, so you can look at them at home. That way, you can use your ten minutes to enjoy the fact that you can see the real pages, without minding the details. The other parts of the exhibition are worthwhile too. There is a lot of art from contemporaries of the Limbourg brothers that makes clear the state of the art around 1400. The scriptorium is nice: a room in which is explained how the miniatures were made. The museum shop, moved from the museum entrance to the center of the exhibition, does not home any surprises: the catalogue, a calendar, posters, cards, books on related subjects. My general impression of the exhibition is one of restlessness. You can feel people thinking: "I have to like this because they tell me it is very special what I am seeing here". Probably this can't be helped, since the museum has to earn back the costs it has made to make this exhibition possible. Still, the feeling remains that whereas I simply had to see this exhibition, it wasn't the best museum experience ever. It's all in the game, though.

The Limbourg Brothers, Nijmegen masters at the French court | 1400 - 1416
30 August - 20 November 2005
museum het Valkhof
Nijmegen, Kelfkensbos 59
Open: Tuesday - Friday 10:00 - 17:00, Saturday, Sunday 12:00 - 17:00
For this exhibition a supplementary fee of € 4 is required, in addition to the usual ticket price.
www.museumhetvalkhof.nl/gebroedersvanlimburg/

Illustrations:
- The temptation of a Christian, Les Belles Heures du Duc de Berry, circa 1406-1408/9,New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters Collection, ms. 54.1.1, fol. 191r (detail)
- Limbourg Brothers, Duke Jean de Berry Departing on a Pilgimage, from: Les Petites Heures de Jean de Berry (detail), Frankrijk circa 1412. Parijs, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. Lat. 18014, fol. 288v. © Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2005