The Labours of the Months
/
These 12 small pictures may have been made to decorate the recessed panels of a pair of doors, and seem to have been planned in pairs with the figures facing each other. They show the ‘labours of the months’ – the rural activities that take place each month throughout the year.
They are now framed in two groups of six, arranged in an order which reflects that in other, similar cycles and seems to make sense in relation to the seasons depicted, although we cannot be certain this is the original order.
January: A warmly dressed old man sits by a stove.
February: Trimming stakes with a hatchet.
March: Pruning the vines.
April: A cooper making a barrel.
May: A young man holds two rods.
June: A labourer holds a sheaf of corn he has cut with his scythe.
July: A labourer threshes grain with a flail.
August: Exhausted from fruit picking, a labourer sleeps beneath a tree.
September: The vines are harvested and the grapes pressed.
October: The field is ploughed.
November: A hunter with his hawk and hounds.
December: Slaughtering a pig.
An old man sits indoors by the fire with his elbow propped on the fireplace or stove, and his forehead leaning on his hand. He pulls his jacket closer round himself and wears a yellow wrap or blanket against the cold. The interior of his room is bare and simple, and not in good repair – the plast...
Not on display
A young man kneels beside a wooden block and cuts stakes with a hatchet. A line of stakes has already been set in the field, which is ploughed into rows ready to be planted, perhaps with vines or olives. The stakes would be used to support the young plants.This is one of 12 small pictures that to...
Not on display
A bearded man wearing a yellow tunic trims vines that have been trained to grow up two trees. The branches of the vine are bare, while the trees have a few brownish leaves. Pruning vines is an activity carried out in Italy in winter when the plant is dormant, and in spring when the new leaves hav...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.In this painting, which we think may represent April, a cooper makes a wooden barrel. He raises his mallet ready to strike the tool in his other...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.It is the most puzzling picture of the series. A young man holds two rods, with one crossing the other at the top. It looks as though he might be...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.A barefoot young man sits holding a sheaf of corn he has cut in one hand and his scythe in the other. The sleeves of his blue jacket are rolled u...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.In this painting, which we think may represent July, a man threshes grain from the corn husks and stalks of straw. He holds the corn on a wooden...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.The labourer in this scene, which may represent August, is so exhausted that he has fallen asleep. He sits beside a tree, his head resting on his...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.A man sits beneath a tree through which a vine has been trained. A large bunch of red grapes hangs from a leafy stem. He uses both hands to squee...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.The young labourer gestures to something in front of him, and turns to look over his shoulder as if talking to someone outside the picture. He is...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.A young huntsman in a red cap and jacket holds the leashes of his two hounds. He looks at his hawk, which perches on his hand. A hunting horn is...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.In what we believe is the final painting of this series, a man wearing a white apron and holding a knife slaughters a grey pig by slitting its th...
Not on display
More paintings by Italian, Venetian
(Showing 6 of 23 works)
Three young ladies are making music in a landscape of meadows and lakes. They are dressed in expensive clothes made from voluminous quantities of sumptuous silk, damask, brocade and velvet. The costumes, with their particularly extravagant sleeves, and the ornamentally plaited hair of the lady on...
A dark-haired, rather fleshy young man with a prominent nose and a distinct five o‘clock shadow on his chin, jowls and upper lip is shown in an interior. To his left, a window opens onto a hilly landscape with a walled city on the shore of a lake, under a cloudy sky. We don’t know who the sitter...
Not on display
This is one of a series of five paintings that decorated furniture or wall panelling. The subjects are all military and they may have been painted for the entrance hall of a Venetian palace, where arms and armour were often exhibited.Foot soldiers are gathered before tents, and a soldier in blue...
Not on display
An elderly bearded man kneels in a landscape, gazing up at the Virgin Mary and Christ Child who float in the sky. Behind him a rather astonished-looking young woman throws up her hands. This is the Emperor Augustus' encounter with the sibyl, a pagan prophetess.According to medieval legend, on the...
Not on display
Christ, dressed in white, bears the Cross on his shoulder in this small devotional picture. The crown of thorns circles his head, its spikes pressing deep into his flesh. His eyes are reddened with weeping, the tears on his cheeks echoing the drops of blood on his forehead. This was undoubtedly a...
We do not know who this man is. Set against a very dark background, only his face can be seen in any detail. The folds of his crimson cardinal’s robe are painted in boldly swept lines that may have been intended to look like the style of Tintoretto. The painting is in very poor condition, with se...
Not on display
This richly dressed lady, whose identity is unknown, sits behind a parapet against a plain, dark background. Her body is turning slightly away from us and her hand rests on the parapet, making it look as though she might be sitting at an open window. The parapet was a common device in Venetian po...
Not on display
We do not know the identity of this lady. The downturned corners of her mouth give her a somewhat mournful expression. The painted framing at the top of the picture is similar to examples seen in Northern European portraits, suggesting that it might be by a German or Netherlandish artist who was...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.In this painting, which we think may represent April, a cooper makes a wooden barrel. He raises his mallet ready to strike the tool in his other...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.The labourer in this scene, which may represent August, is so exhausted that he has fallen asleep. He sits beside a tree, his head resting on his...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.In what we believe is the final painting of this series, a man wearing a white apron and holding a knife slaughters a grey pig by slitting its th...
Not on display
A young man kneels beside a wooden block and cuts stakes with a hatchet. A line of stakes has already been set in the field, which is ploughed into rows ready to be planted, perhaps with vines or olives. The stakes would be used to support the young plants.This is one of 12 small pictures that to...
Not on display
An old man sits indoors by the fire with his elbow propped on the fireplace or stove, and his forehead leaning on his hand. He pulls his jacket closer round himself and wears a yellow wrap or blanket against the cold. The interior of his room is bare and simple, and not in good repair – the plast...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.In this painting, which we think may represent July, a man threshes grain from the corn husks and stalks of straw. He holds the corn on a wooden...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.A barefoot young man sits holding a sheaf of corn he has cut in one hand and his scythe in the other. The sleeves of his blue jacket are rolled u...
Not on display
A bearded man wearing a yellow tunic trims vines that have been trained to grow up two trees. The branches of the vine are bare, while the trees have a few brownish leaves. Pruning vines is an activity carried out in Italy in winter when the plant is dormant, and in spring when the new leaves hav...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.It is the most puzzling picture of the series. A young man holds two rods, with one crossing the other at the top. It looks as though he might be...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.A young huntsman in a red cap and jacket holds the leashes of his two hounds. He looks at his hawk, which perches on his hand. A hunting horn is...
Not on display
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the ‘labours of the months’ – the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.The young labourer gestures to something in front of him, and turns to look over his shoulder as if talking to someone outside the picture. He is...
Not on display
Although this panel has been cut down on the left-hand side, its original size and shape suggests that it was probably made to decorate a piece of furniture, perhaps for a bedchamber. It is in the style of Palma Vecchio, although it has suffered much damage.The painting depicts an episode from th...
Not on display
In this enormous picture, the doge – the elected head of the Venetian Republic – kneels before the Virgin and Child, asking for her support for the Venetian state. This is painting at its most official: the doge holds a banner showing the lion of Saint Mark, the symbol of Venice, and wears ceremo...
Not on display
This picture is a fragment of a larger painting for the spandrel of an arch (the triangular area beside the arch). There would have been another figure in a complementary pose on the other side of the arch. The painting consists of five separate pieces of canvas, which were probably originally gl...
Not on display
This sitter’s waistcoat and the cuffs of his coat are richly embroidered. His dignified bearing and expensive clothes identify him as a gentleman, but neither his name, nor the identity of the artist, is known. The work probably dates from the middle of the eighteenth century and is possibly by a...
Not on display
You've viewed 6 of 23 paintings