The Months: August
Engraving, part of a series of twelve oval prints with allegorical representations of the months with the seasonal labors inherited from the Middle Ages. The activities illustrated in the series do not seem to have a moral sense, and depict relatively simple scenes with characters dressed in simple garbs, executing their labors in rustic landscapes. This representation of August, like that of July, is centered on the theme of harvests. In the first plane, on the center and on the right, three peasants are cutting the wheat using reaping hooks, while another peasant, on the left, makes sheaves with the cut branches of wheat. In the background, a truck carries wheat towards a barn. The scene is dominated by Virgo, astrological attribute of the month. The theme of this representation, centered on harvests, is consistent with medieval representations of the labors of the months.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Months: August
- Artist: Etienne Delaune (French, Orléans 1518/19–1583 Strasbourg)
- Date: 1568
- Medium: Engraving
- Dimensions: Sheet (trimmed): 2 3/16 × 3 1/8 in. (5.5 × 7.9 cm)
- Classifications: Prints, Ornament & Architecture
- Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1947
- Object Number: 47.139.24
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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