Labours of the Months

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Illustration from Très riches heures du Duc de Berry, 1412-16, by Pol and Hermann de Limbourg, representing the month of August and depicting, in the foreground, the Nobility riding out to hunt with falcons while in the midground, the harvest takes place and the workers cool off in the river. One of the Duc's many castles, Etampes, completes the scene. Illumination on vellum, 22,5 x 13,6 cm
Illustration from Très riches heures du Duc de Berry, 1412-16, by Pol and Hermann de Limbourg, representing the month of August and depicting, in the foreground, the Nobility riding out to hunt with falcons while in the midground, the harvest takes place and the workers cool off in the river. One of the Duc's many castles, Etampes, completes the scene. Illumination on vellum, 22,5 x 13,6 cm

The term Labours of the Months refers to cycles seen in Medieval and early Renaissance art depicting in twelve scenes the rural activities that commonly took place in the months of the year. They are frequently found in large sculptural schemes on churches and in illuminated manuscripts, especially in the Calendars of late medieval Books of Hours. The manuscripts are important for the development of landscape painting, containing most of the first painting where this was given prominence. Late in the history of the theme, Simon Bening produced especially fine cycles which link the Limbourgs with the landscapes of Peter Breughel the Elder.

They are often linked to the signs of the Zodiac, and are seen as humankind's response to God's ordering of the Universe.


Contents

[edit] Typical cycle

The contents of cycles varied with date, location, and the purpose of the work. The most famous cycle, in the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, was designed for the personal use of a great magnate, and was unusually large, allowing all the typical elements to be used in many months. It combines astrological and calendar information at the top, with a combination of the agricultual life of the peasant, the life of the elite courtiers, and illustrations of the Duke's many castles in the background of several scenes.

A typical simple scheme was:[1]

  • January - Feasting
  • February - Sitting by the fire
  • March - Pruning trees, or digging
  • April - Planting, enjoying the country or picking flowers
  • May - Hawking, courtly love
  • June - Hay harvest
  • July - wheat harvest
  • August - wheat threshing
  • September - Grape harvest
  • October - ploughing or sowing
  • November - gathering acorns for pigs
  • December - killing the pig, baking bread

- but there were many variations, especially in major wine-growing areas, where more wine related scenes were included. Italian cycles often advance the agricultural scenes a month earlier than ones from the Low countries or England. The impact of the onset of the Little Ice Age has been detected in differences between early and late examples.

[edit] Sculpture cycles

A few sculpted examples of the many surviving are:

  • Chartres cathedral: west and north portal archivolts, and also a dedicated stained glass window in the south ambulatory
  • Notre Dame, Paris: northern door jams of the west facade (Portal of the Virgin), and a stained glass Zodiacs, labours, vices and virtues cycle filling the west rose window
  • Vezelay (Burgundy, Basilique Ste-Madeleine): Archivolt of main west basilica doorway
  • Autun (Burgundy, Cathedral St-Lazare) : Archivolt of main west cathedral doorway
  • Ferrara cathedral
  • Saint Mark's, Venice: main portal
  • San Zeno di Verona: facade
  • Lucca (Tuscany, Duomo): Large bas-relief panels with little Zodial signs, to the right and left of the main facade door
  • Perugia (Umbria) - Fontana Maggiore - relief panels showing monthly labours are amongst those surrounding the lower basin of the great fountain in front of the Duomo.
  • Otranto (Puglia, Cattedrale): Zodiac signs and labours form part of the mosaic scenes which cover the entire floor.
  • Canterbury Cathedral : Zodiac signs and monthly labours are amongst the subjects illustrated in large inlaid marble floor medallions on the edge of the Trinity Chapel close to where the shrine of Saint Thomas (Becket) was located.
  • St Augustine's Church, Brookland, Kent : Large cylindrical lead font with reliefs of both Zodiac signs and monthly labours - a rare example in the UK both of such a font and of the combination of zodiac signs and monthly labours.

Most sculptured cycles in Europe, especially when compressed into the archivolt of a portal, consist of an astrological symbol beside, above or incorporated in a sculpture or relief illustrating a monthly labour.

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
  1. ^ Calkins, Robert G. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages, mp 246, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1983

[edit] External links

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