The Art of Illumination

Belles Heures of Jean de France, duc de Berry, 1405–1408/9. Herman, Paul, and Jean de Limbourg (Franco-Netherlandish, active in France by 1399–1416). French; Made in Paris. Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum; 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 in. (23.8 x 16.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 1954 (54.1.1).

Calendar Pages
June: Scything Hay, Cancer, Folio 7r

After the noble activities depicted for April and May, laborers return in June: a peasant, his face obscured by his hat, cuts the hay with his long scythe. The distinction between the tall and shorn green field is achieved with a subtle gradation of color. The zodiacal sign Cancer, represented by a crayfish rather than a crab, is seen from above as if on a trencher, its antennae extending beyond the frame of the quatrefoil.

See The Medieval Garden Enclosed for more about this calendar page.