DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44747#0040
harvest without knowing that he is destined to die that night. He
should be rich toward God, not for himself. The Monthly Labors
with Biblical Parables of Marten van Valckenborch (Kunstorisches
Museum, Vienna) are representations of the months with the sermons
of Jesus as the main subject. In comparison to these examples, one
can see that Bruegel was liberated from religious subject matter and
dedicated himself to representing the grandeur of nature and the
blessings it showers on the human beings working hard in the fields.
The Corn Harvest (fig. 17) is a task of midsummer. It has been
previously identified as an activity of July and August. While the
cutting of grain may be classified as belonging to August, the picking
of apples is sometimes depicted as an activity of September. The
September of Hans Bol’s Months cycle shows a farmer on a ladder
shaking down pears from a tree while women pick them up from the
ground and put them in sacks (fig. 18). This evidence would place
part of Bruegel’s Corn Harvest in August and September, since the
pear tree under which the peasants are resting displays pears with
calyxes, present only before the fruit ripens. This is a surprisingly
accurate observation, worthy of a botanist. In the field in the middle
ground, children have hung a bird from a pole and are throwing
sticks at it. The main subject of the painting is the grain harvest, but
the harvest of fruit at the end of summer is also suggested.
The main feature of Beturn of the Herd (fig. 19) is a panoramic
mountain landscape in late autumn. It has been associated with the
labors of September and October, but herding cattle is pictured in
November of Marten van Valckenborch’s Monthly Labors. There is
a net set for catching birds in the middle ground, a labor connected
with September in the Book of Hours illuminated by the Master of
James IV of Scotland (fig.20). It is easily overlooked if one is not
paying particular attention. In manuscripts, grape picking is usually
shown as a task of September or October, and this task is also found
in the middle ground of Bruegel’s picture. Near the farm house on
the far side of the river in the middle ground, a peasant is striking the
limbs of an oak tree with a pole to knock down acorns for the hogs,
but it is nearly impossible to see this hog-feeding scene in a repro-
duction without using a magnifying glass. The meaning would be
quite obscure if one did not know that feeding hogs was an important
farm task of November from the Limbourg brothers’ Tres Riches
Heures made for the Duke of Berry and the Flemish Book of Hours
in the Staatliche Bibliothek in Munich (cod.lat. 23250). Thus, Return
of the Herd contains events from three months, September, October,
and November, and it could be described as a comprehensive view of
peasant life in late fall.
Hunters in the Snow (fig. 21) is a marvelous depiction of a bitter-
cold, snowy winter, combining scenes of Flemish village life with an
immense Alpine landscape. The slaughtering and singeing of a hog,
appearing in the foreground, is shown in most manuscripts, engrav-
ings, and woodcuts as a task of November or December, and hunters
carrying their prey home appear in a November scene in Simon
Bening’s Book of Go/jf (London) and in January in the same artist’s
Hennessey Book of Hours (Brussels). However, activities like skating,
sliding on horse jaws or three-legged stools, and top-spinning on the
ice, which occupy a large area of Bruegel’s painting, are depicted as
recreations of December, January, and February in other prints and
paintings. In an example by an anonymous painter of the northern
Netherlands at the end of the sixteenth century (fig.22), skating
appears in December and January. In Hans Bol’s engravings, it is
included in February. Therefore, Hunters in the Snow should not be
seen as representing a particular month but as containing a variety of
activities, including sports, which are a common part of peasant life
in mid-winter. In one microcosmic episode in the middle ground, fire
shoots from the chimney of a farm house as peasants rush up with
ladders to climb on the roof and buckets of water to put out the fire.
This is an example of Bruegel’s sharp observation of the accidents
of daily life.
As I have stated, the five extant paintings should be seen as a
Seasons cycle and there is difficulty in assigning individual paintings
to particular months. That is why the interpretation of this series of
paintings as a cycle of Months forces Bruegel’s observations of life and
nature into too limited a framework.
So what sort of painting was the one that is lost? The preparatory
drawing Spring (fig. 23) which represents March, April, and May may
be used to speculate on this question, since the present Summer in
this series of drawings is so close to Corn Harvest. Spring contains
images of the gardening for March, sheep- shearing for April, and
boats in the canal for May. In most manuscripts and prints, sheep
shearing is depicted as a task of June rather than April as in Bruegel’s
drawing. April is generally too early for sheep shearing, because the
sheep would be likely to catch cold. However, speculating on the basis
of Bruegel’s spring, the painting missing from the Seasons cycle may
have been composed around sheep shearing as a central subject with
the pleasant early-summer pastime of boating on the canal in the
middle ground or background.53)
50
should be rich toward God, not for himself. The Monthly Labors
with Biblical Parables of Marten van Valckenborch (Kunstorisches
Museum, Vienna) are representations of the months with the sermons
of Jesus as the main subject. In comparison to these examples, one
can see that Bruegel was liberated from religious subject matter and
dedicated himself to representing the grandeur of nature and the
blessings it showers on the human beings working hard in the fields.
The Corn Harvest (fig. 17) is a task of midsummer. It has been
previously identified as an activity of July and August. While the
cutting of grain may be classified as belonging to August, the picking
of apples is sometimes depicted as an activity of September. The
September of Hans Bol’s Months cycle shows a farmer on a ladder
shaking down pears from a tree while women pick them up from the
ground and put them in sacks (fig. 18). This evidence would place
part of Bruegel’s Corn Harvest in August and September, since the
pear tree under which the peasants are resting displays pears with
calyxes, present only before the fruit ripens. This is a surprisingly
accurate observation, worthy of a botanist. In the field in the middle
ground, children have hung a bird from a pole and are throwing
sticks at it. The main subject of the painting is the grain harvest, but
the harvest of fruit at the end of summer is also suggested.
The main feature of Beturn of the Herd (fig. 19) is a panoramic
mountain landscape in late autumn. It has been associated with the
labors of September and October, but herding cattle is pictured in
November of Marten van Valckenborch’s Monthly Labors. There is
a net set for catching birds in the middle ground, a labor connected
with September in the Book of Hours illuminated by the Master of
James IV of Scotland (fig.20). It is easily overlooked if one is not
paying particular attention. In manuscripts, grape picking is usually
shown as a task of September or October, and this task is also found
in the middle ground of Bruegel’s picture. Near the farm house on
the far side of the river in the middle ground, a peasant is striking the
limbs of an oak tree with a pole to knock down acorns for the hogs,
but it is nearly impossible to see this hog-feeding scene in a repro-
duction without using a magnifying glass. The meaning would be
quite obscure if one did not know that feeding hogs was an important
farm task of November from the Limbourg brothers’ Tres Riches
Heures made for the Duke of Berry and the Flemish Book of Hours
in the Staatliche Bibliothek in Munich (cod.lat. 23250). Thus, Return
of the Herd contains events from three months, September, October,
and November, and it could be described as a comprehensive view of
peasant life in late fall.
Hunters in the Snow (fig. 21) is a marvelous depiction of a bitter-
cold, snowy winter, combining scenes of Flemish village life with an
immense Alpine landscape. The slaughtering and singeing of a hog,
appearing in the foreground, is shown in most manuscripts, engrav-
ings, and woodcuts as a task of November or December, and hunters
carrying their prey home appear in a November scene in Simon
Bening’s Book of Go/jf (London) and in January in the same artist’s
Hennessey Book of Hours (Brussels). However, activities like skating,
sliding on horse jaws or three-legged stools, and top-spinning on the
ice, which occupy a large area of Bruegel’s painting, are depicted as
recreations of December, January, and February in other prints and
paintings. In an example by an anonymous painter of the northern
Netherlands at the end of the sixteenth century (fig.22), skating
appears in December and January. In Hans Bol’s engravings, it is
included in February. Therefore, Hunters in the Snow should not be
seen as representing a particular month but as containing a variety of
activities, including sports, which are a common part of peasant life
in mid-winter. In one microcosmic episode in the middle ground, fire
shoots from the chimney of a farm house as peasants rush up with
ladders to climb on the roof and buckets of water to put out the fire.
This is an example of Bruegel’s sharp observation of the accidents
of daily life.
As I have stated, the five extant paintings should be seen as a
Seasons cycle and there is difficulty in assigning individual paintings
to particular months. That is why the interpretation of this series of
paintings as a cycle of Months forces Bruegel’s observations of life and
nature into too limited a framework.
So what sort of painting was the one that is lost? The preparatory
drawing Spring (fig. 23) which represents March, April, and May may
be used to speculate on this question, since the present Summer in
this series of drawings is so close to Corn Harvest. Spring contains
images of the gardening for March, sheep- shearing for April, and
boats in the canal for May. In most manuscripts and prints, sheep
shearing is depicted as a task of June rather than April as in Bruegel’s
drawing. April is generally too early for sheep shearing, because the
sheep would be likely to catch cold. However, speculating on the basis
of Bruegel’s spring, the painting missing from the Seasons cycle may
have been composed around sheep shearing as a central subject with
the pleasant early-summer pastime of boating on the canal in the
middle ground or background.53)
50