The Months: October

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 October is dominated by the sign of Libra, under which a man fills a tank with grapes, two other men by his side helping him. In the second plane, on the left, a woman empties the content of a bucket in a barrel, using a funnel, and on the right, other women are harvesting grapes. This composition is very closely related to the representation of September in the "Compost et Kalendrier des Bergers," in which a man compresses grapes on a bucket, while another fills it with grapes from a basket, while other characters in the background are picking grapes.