A medieval farmer sowing October seeds, immortalised in radiant stained glass — where rural labour, spiritual devotion, and luminous craftsmanship unite in one breathtaking roundel.
Royal Pantheon of San Isidoro
León’s Royal Pantheon — the Sistine Chapel of Romanesque art — dazzles with 12th-century frescoes where biblical majesty and twelve vivid months of medieval agricultural life beautifully coexist.
The Labours of the Months by Luca della Robbia
Luca della Robbia’s twelve glazed terracotta roundels — crafted for Piero de’ Medici’s intimate studietto — celebrate each month’s labour with exquisite Renaissance artistry, now treasured at the V&A.
Simon Bening’s December
Simon Bening’s luminous December miniature captures festive anticipation — bread baking, animals slaughtered, hunters departing — a Flemish world poised breathlessly before Christmas celebration begins.
Simon Bening’s November
Bening’s luminous November miniature captures aristocratic splendor — a nobleman triumphantly returning, antlered stag in tow, hounds straining — hunting elevated to magnificent courtly theater.
Simon Bening’s October
Bening’s intoxicating October miniature — nobles tasting, peasants pressing, barrels groaning — distills Renaissance Flemish winemaking into one luminous, grape-soaked masterpiece of observation.
Simon Bening’s September
Simon Bening’s Golf Book depicts a lively September scene of a medieval stick-and-ball game resembling golf, blending courtly leisure, rural setting, and early sport imagery within a richly illuminated calendar page from 16th-century Bruges.
Simon Bening’s August
Bening’s Golf Book August scene evokes a poetic harvest landscape of golden wheat, labour, and rest, where Flemish peasants inhabit a richly detailed world of seasonal abundance, luminous colour, and harmonious rural rhythm.
Simon Bening’s July
Simon Bening’s July miniature elevates falconry into an emblem of aristocratic refinement and control over nature, while Rilke’s poem reimagines the same practice as a profound, almost spiritual bond between human and bird, united in movement, training, and freedom.
Simon Bening’s June
Simon Bening’s June page from the Golf Book vividly depicts a chivalric tournament, where armored knights joust for honor, love, and glory amid a lively Flemish city backdrop.