Photo gallery
The labours of the months
The photographs linked to below show both complete and incomplete sets of labours of the months of various dates, from across Europe. The best known cycles are carvings in the Gothic style of the Ile-de-France, at Reims, Chartres and Amiens, but there are interesting portrayals from the Romanesque to the Renaissance, in different media (wood and stained glass) and in other countries (England and Italy).
Chartres - the facade;
carvings in late Romanesque style
Chartres - the stained glass; one of the fine early thirteenth-century windows is completely given over to a series of labours of the months, twinned with the zodiac signs
Great Malvern; a set of misericords offers a tantalising glimpse of late medieval life in England
Paris; the labours of the months surround the left door of the main facade
Pisa; classical prototypes seem to have affected this fine set of late Romanesque sculptures, very different from the French sets
Reims - a rather damaged but originally very fine set of the months
Saint-Denis - Abbot Suger's facade of about 1140 includes a fine complete set
Venice - carvings of great character and force on the central west door of San Marco
Verona - late romanesque carvings, a complete and undamaged set!
All photographs are copyright Podtours, 2006.
Back to The Labours of the Months