Saint-Denis, Paris
The labours of the months in medieval France
This is a complete set of the labours of the months, on the jambs of the right portal of the west front. It dates from 1135-40, when Abbot Suger built the narthex, a new and monumental west end for the Carolingian basilica. We're lucky to have it - most of the sculptural programme for the west front has been lost. The months are shown on medallions bordered by vegetal scrolls, with grotesque masks at the points where they join.
Threshing with a flail, and reaping the corn with a sickle - July and August.
September and October show the vintage, putting wine into the barrel, and the pig-herd knocking down acorns for the pigs to eat, to fatten them up for killing towards mid-winter.
At the top we see the pig being butchered and packed into a barrel for salting - the carcass hangs up on the right hand side of the roundel. That's November dealt with, and in December the man at the table is able to feast on the delicious pork. The fire, under a conical chimney hood on the right, will keep him warm. In fact the chimney hood usually appears in the February picture (for instance in the Chartres stained glass) - it's been borrowed for midwinter here.
May and June - in May the knight goes riding (medieval troubadour and trouvere songs tell us the kind of bad behaviour that often followed), then in June we see the peasant has got warm working, taken his tunic off and hung it up on the left.
A gender shift here, as we usually see a man warming himself by the fire for February, but at Saint-Denis it's two women enjoying a good gossip. (Chauvinist stereotyping?) Underneath, January is shown by the two-headed figure of Janus, closing one door and opening another as the year begins - a classical reference, but not uncommon in medieval art.
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