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April from the Hours of Henry VIII
This detail is from the April calendar page of the Morgan Library’s Hours of Henry VIII MS. H. 8. It features one of the most popular past times featured in book of hours calendar images for the labors of April; the courtly springtime pastime of picking flowers. The scene looks to be set in an enclosed garden; a woman wearing a garland of flowers is braiding another. Next to her her erstwhile swain, appears to be offering her at least one of the two bunches of flowers he bears. The Morgan library describes the man as a “foppishly dressed youth” and suggests that he is holding flowers which she will weave…
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April from the Da Costa Hours
This illustration for the calendar page for April (MS M.399, fol. 5v) from The Morgan Library’s Da Costa Hours is a somewhat atypical scene for April, in terms of what most books of hours depict for the April calendar; the labors of April include, most often, scenes of courtship or, or the verdant spring in the form of flowers or spring planting or pruning. Here is a spring farmyard scene, with a cow being milked, a shepherd with lambs, a flock of sheep (and a single billy goat) exiting a sheepcote with some assistance from a man inside, a ewe nursing a lamb. In the background a woman in the…
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April from the Très Riches Heures
In this book of hours calendar image for April from the Très Riches Heures of Jean Duc du Berry (Musé Condee MS 65 F4v) one of the typical seasonal pastimes (or labors) is depicted; gathering flowers. But the primary emphasis of the scene is on the couple in the foreground exchanging rings in a betrothal ceremony, with what might be the young woman’s parents looking on (various attempts have been made to associate the portraits with real people). To the right two women are picking flowers. In the background on the right fruit trees in an orchard are blooming, and beyond that on the lake fisherman are using seining nets to…
