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Medieval Illustrations of Labours of the Month, Zodiac Signs, Cardinal
Virtues and Sins
BRITAIN
SPAIN
FRANCE
ITALY
Back to Paradoxplace Medieval Christian Church Page Links
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The archivolts, door jams, facade
reliefs and floors of many
Romanesque and Gothic churches contained reliefs, mosaics or medallions which represented
either or both of the twelve signs of the Zodiac and the twelve typical activities
associated with them. This material is also to be found in
misericords and also stained glass, and sometimes there were also other subjects,
such as illustrations (reminders ?) of
the Cardinal & Christian virtues and sins.
Seasonality was medieval life's in your face reality, and most would
have felt lucky surviving to another pig killing time without starving
of being killed in someone else's war.
Great examples of the genre are to be found
in Burgundy in the
Cathédrale St-Lazare,
Autun and the
Basilique Ste-Madeleine, Vézelay. Chartres Cathedral has a
magnificent
"Zodiac" stained glass window dating
from 1217, plus archivolt sculptures in the
west and
north portal
ensembles, whilst
Notre Dame de-Paris has a full array of zodiacs, sins
etc in its west rose window and in (mostly replica) sculptures on the door jams of the
(west facade) Coronation Portal, and
Angers Cathedral has zodiacs in one
transept rose window and labours in the facing one. The
main door
jams of the Basilique St-Denis near
Paris have both Zodiacs and monthly activities dating from Abbot Suger's
"first Gothic" abbey (east end) and the theme is also picked up in the south rose -
though this only dates from the mid 1800s and in 2007 was hidden for
repairs. Small numbers of
surviving Zodiac signs and labours can be found in many French churches,
one of the finest examples being
St-Lazare in Avallon (North Burgundy).
Right down
south in
Otranto (Puglia)
monthly activities and zodiac signs are to be found in the eastern nave
section of the
mosaics which cover the entire cathedral floor,
and there are several other examples in reliefs in northern Italian
churches. In Perugia, the monthly labours are portrayed in some of
the relief panels which ring the bottom tier of the magnificent
Fontana Maggiore outside the Duomo.
Canterbury
Cathedral has a well worn set of very unusual and large round Zodiac,
monthly activity, sins, virtues and heraldic beast medallions
inset into the east (Trinity Chapel) floor near where the Shrine of Saint Thomas used to
be, whilst a bit further south in Kent (at
Brooklands in the Romney Marshes) there is a beautiful Norman lead font with
reliefs of both zodiac signs and monthly labours (one and two thirds
times over).
An arch of the
Royal Pantheon in the Basilica of San Isidoro in
León (Spain) is frescoed with monthly activity roundels,
whilst the archivolts of the Doorway of the Lamb have a set of Zodiac
signs in bas relief.
A listing of the
Zodiac / labours we know about in
Britain,
Spain,
France and
Italy is below.
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The Paradoxplace pages
on
the
Zodiac window at Chartres,
the
Zodiac Roundels at Autun,
and the
Zodiac Font Reliefs at Brookland
have photos and descriptions of all the images of zodiacs and activities,
and also the dates of each zodiac period and the four solstices.
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Autun - Cathédrale St-Lazare
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Brookland - Church of
Saint Augustine
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Chartres -
Cathédrale Notre Dame
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The dates and
signs of the Zodiac, and typical labour of the month
illustrations
There are many
variants and interpretations, both in the labours
illustrated and in the month in which they occur - that's
part of the fun of discovery!
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Aquarius – January
January 21 – February 18
Le Verseau (The Water
Carrier)
A feast or a man (Janus) with
2 (/3) faces - looking to the old and new years.
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Pisces – February
February 19 – March 20
Les Poissons (The
Fishes)
A man warming
his feet in front of a fire.
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Aries – March
March 21– April 20
(March 20 is the Spring
Equinox)
Le Bélier (The
Ram)
Pruning vines, digging, etc.
Note that in
and before 1751, English New Year's Day was on Lady Day - March
25th.
New Year's Day for 1752 in England was reset
to January 1st - so there was no January 1 - March 24
1751 (aka 1751/52). |
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Taurus – April
April 21 – May 21
Le Taureau (The
Bull)
April flowers / the arrival of
Spring.
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Gemini – May
May 22 – June 21
Les Gémeaux (The
Twins)
A knight courting, hunting
(especially hawking).
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Cancer – June
June 22– July 22
(June 21 is the Summer
Solstice)
Le Cancer (The
Crab)
Mowing /
cutting hay.
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Leo – July
July 23 – August 23
Le Lion (The
Lion)
Scything wheat, sharpening a
sickle, etc.
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Virgo – August
August 24 – September 22
La Vierge (The
Virgin)
Threshing grain with a hinged
threshing rod.
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Libra – September
September 23 – October 23
(September 22 is the Autumn
Equinox)
Le Balance (The
Scales)
Picking / treading grapes.
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Scorpio – October
October 24 – November 22
Le Scorpion (The
Scorpion)
Pouring wine
into a barrel.
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Sagittarius –
November
November 23 – December 21
Le Sagitaire
(The Archer)
Harvesting acorns for winter
feed, collecting wood faggots, etc.
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Capricorn – December
December 22 - January 20
(December 21 - Winter
Solstice)
La Capricorne
(The Sea Goat also the Billy Goat)
Killing pigs, feasting.
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Some of these displays also
incorporate, or are near, illustrations of
Virtues and Sins
More the latter, as the
hopeless wretchedness of sinners was much more interesting than the happiness of
the virtuous.
Abbaye St-Pierre
de Moissac - Avaritia
Deathbed purging
(or possibly ingesting a leg) - the point is that the money bag of
greed and avarice does not seem
to be helping much. Note the elf pennanted hemline on the
right.
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Paradoxplace has many photo pages of zodiacs, and there are more photographed
and awaiting their turn to be published (see the links below), .
This page also lists other places we have not been to
(yet), or went to before we became interested in this subject (and
therefore now have to go back!)
These pages relate to sculpture, mosaics,
misericords and
stained glass representations of zodiac signs, monthly activities,
virtues and sins. The book by Henisch on the right has an emphasis
on medieval books of hours,
many of which had
beautiful illustrations of monthly labours.
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colour coding |
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XXX - Link to Photos in
Paradoxplace
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XXX - Photos in
paradoxplace photo-library but not yet published
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XXX - Link to External Site;
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XXX - No links or photos at this
stage |
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BRITAIN
roughly north (top) to
south
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Carlisle Cathedral (choir capitals) |
A full set of monthly
activity scenes is incorporated into the choir capitals, but
only half are visible because of the subsequently erected
ugly dark wood choir panelling (done by the Victorians of
course).
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Church of St Margaret, Walmgate, York |
Scroll down to
"South Doorway" section. All that remains of the Zodiac / Labours
cycle is a weathered brace of fishes, but there are lots of other
interesting little merpeople etc.
Photographs in the green room .... |
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Burnham Deepdale, Norfolk - Saint Mary |
The square stone font has
three relief panels on each side depicting labours of the months. The font is in outstanding
condition, especially considering that it spent several
decades in bits in a rockery garden. The church, which
has been rebuilt several times, still has a rare round Saxon
stone tower.
Photographs from 2011 in the green room .... |
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Lincoln Cathedral |
One of the rescued west
facade bas reliefs "the punishment of sodomy" is now on
display in the cathedral.
Some of the surviving
wooden roof bosses in their rather dingy cloister are
monthly labours, maybe, but don't hold your breath! On
the left below, a medieval power walker carrying something,
and on the right almost certainly a December pig about to
get whacked and cooked for Christmas dinner.
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Church of Saint George, Brinsop,
Herefordshire |
A weathered Pisces and
Taurus are to be found sculptured on two of the voussoirs
circling the St George tympanum now on the inside north wall
of the of
the church. Sagittarius has found his way onto a voussoir
now behind a locked door on the north side.
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Great Malvern Priory, Worcestershire |
Misericords.
Link to more photos from Holly Hayes.
Photographs in the green room ....
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Saint Peter, Hook Norton (Oxfordshire) |
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Saint Mary, Fairford |
This amazing
Cotswolds' "wool church" has the only complete
original set of
stained glass (c1510) in England, and also a lot of misericords.
Photographs in the green room .... not sure whether there's
any Zodiacs / labours there ......
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Church of Saint Mary the Virgin,
Iffley, Oxfordshire |
The Norman portal on the
west front of this attractive Romanesque parish church has
some zodiac signs in the outer archivolt.
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Canterbury Cathedral (Trinity Chapel floor
medallions) |
Inset in the floor on
either side of where the
shrine of St Thomas (Becket) used to be (now called the
Trinity Chapel), this elegantly
worn set of floor roundels made in the 1200s
depict months, labours, vices, virtues and a couple of
heroes.
Canterbury Cathedral medieval floor
medallion - Cancer
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St Nicholas, Barfreston
(Kent) |
Various monthly activity
interpretations can be given to some of the outer voussoirs of the south
door of the little pilgrimage church of St Nicholas in the hamlet of
Barfreston between Canterbury and Dover. Leave it to you to see,
but whatever the interpretations the sculptures around the south door
are
plentiful, fun, original, fascinating, rare and very old - and there is
a nice pub next door for lunch!
Follow this link if you're searching for meaning.
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Church of Saint Augustine, Brookland (Romney Marshes, Kent) |
A very rare example in Britain
of both Zodiacs and Monthly Activities together (almost twice over) is to be
found in the wrap around stamped lead of Saint Augustine's 1100s font
(see also photo at top of page). |
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colour coding |
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XXX - Link to Photos in
Paradoxplace
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XXX - Photos in
paradoxplace photo-library but not yet published
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XXX - Link to External Site;
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XXX - No links or photos at this
stage |
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FRANCE
Link to The Medieval Pilgrimage Roads
of France
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Amiens Cathedral (Link
to some photos)
The photo on the right comes from
the book
"L'élan des cathédrales"
by Alain Erlande-Brandenburg
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The lower part of the
west portals is faced by a masonry band within which sit two
rows of quatrefoil framed bas reliefs. These include
representations of Zodiac signs, monthly labours, vices and
virtues and ? (a quatrefoil has an outline shape
similar to a four leaved clover, a trefoil would be like a
three leaf clover, etc). The photo link on the left also has
images of the last judgement tympanum.
Leo,
Virgo, Libra
Scything
hay, threshing wheat, picking fruit
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Soissons Cathedral
(between Amiens and Reims)
The photo on the right comes from
a wonderful book
"The Rose Window" by Painton
Cowen
Buy
from Amazon USA
Buy from Amazon UK 
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Zodiac window with
panels thought to have come originally from a rose window in
Braine Abbey - much of the glass replaced in the late 1800s
but no less interesting or beautiful for that.
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Basilique St-Denis (near
Paris, the first Gothic "cathedral")
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On the jams of the doors of the
western facade, an incomplete set of Zodiac signs is
by the left door, whilst a full set of
monthly activities is by the right door, all dating
from the period 1130 - 40 (which is more than can be said
for most of the other stuff there) though the activities
look younger and a bit more elaborate.
In
the north ambulatory pavement is a mosaic of October's activity -
winemaking - the only survivor of what would have been a
set of 12 activities around the central platform of the St-Fermin Chapel and dating from the 1100s.
Cooking a pig in November
Decanting wine in September
Most magnificently, the south transept rose has a set of zodiac signs in a
circle of 12 roundels in mid window, and on the
circumference are 24 trefoil panels including monthly activities.
In 2007, none of this was visible because of window
restoration. The window, like its
northern sister, dates from the 1840s, though the designs
are traditional and could be a copy of what was there
earlier.
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Paris -
Notre Dame Cathedral
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West
Rose Window. The bottom part of the rose is partially obscured by organ pipes
(the great disease of the 17 / 1800s in European churches), but
there is a
full cycle of 12 Zodiacs, 12 monthly activities,
12 vices
and 12 virtues ( ? - it's usually 7!) so it's worth having a good look with the
binoculars. The window dates from 1220, though a lot
of the glass has had to be replaced over the centuries.
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Door Jams of the (north) west portal
(the Coronation Portal or Portal of the Virgin). Again,
these date from the 1200s originally, but is is doubtful
that many of those there now have been around for that long. |
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Paris -
Basilique St-Germain
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Paris -
Museums - Cluny
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Several Zodiac capitals from
the now disappeared Parisian Abbey Church of Ste-Geneviève.
The Gemini twins aggressively coupled
in the Cluny Museum. |
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Paris -
Museums - Louvre
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Reims Cathedral
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There are the remains
of what could be monthly labours on the wall next to the
famous smiling angel, and presumably more on the other side
of the doorway.
There are also a few
large
monthly labours sculptures in the next door Palais du Tau. These were
voussure sculptures from the
arch outside the north transept rose
window, and have been replaced with copies.
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Reims - St-Remi Museum
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February foot warming
capital (1100s), a Sagittarius roundel (1400s) and others. |
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Vézelay - Basilique Ste-Madeleine
- archivolt of the main west door |
A complete set of
sculpted roundels illustrating both Zodiac signs and labours
of the month are in the outer archivolt of the main west
door.
Disrobing
after coming in from a cold February day outside |
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Autun - St-Lazare Cathedral
January to May
June to December |
A complete set of
sculpted roundels illustrating both Zodiac signs and labours
of the month are in the outer archivolt of the main west
door, and in these two paradoxplace pages.
The Gemini Twins, May 22 - June 21
-
Cathédrale St-Lazare,
Autun (Burgundy)
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In the Chapter House,
one of Gislebertus' capitals
shows
Generosity v Greed (Avarice), and Abstinence v Gluttony. |
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St. Philibert in Tournus |
A few large mosaic
roundels have been uncovered in the ambulatory and cleaned.
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Avallon - St-Lazare, (North Burgundy) |
The west portal archivolt of this charismatic old Clunaic
Priory church has a weathered set of zodiacs and monthly
activities. Although not in very good condition they
are more finely sculptured than their cousins at nearby
Vézelay and slightly more distant
Autun.
The Gemini Twins, May 22 - June 21
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Eglise St-Lazare, Avallon, Burgundy |
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Saint-Évroult-de-Montfort (Orne,
France) |
A lead font very similar
to the one at St
Augustine, Brookland (Kent), though closer
inspection will reveal that the images / lettering on the
blocks used to stamp the lead were different in a number of
ways. |
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Chartres - Notre Dame Cathedral
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The 1200s "Zodiac
Window" in
Chartres cathedral shows all the zodiac signs and monthly
labours in magic stained glass panels. The paradoxplace pages explain the window and show large photos
of the individual frames
Chartres Zodiac Window -
Grape treading in September
Links to:
Zodiac Window Overview
Individual Frames
A: Aquarius to Taurus
Individual Frames
B: Cancer to Capricorn
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The
archivolts of the
north and south doors of the west portal have a
full sculptured Zodiac and monthly labour cycle. |
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The archivolts of the
east door of the
north portal also contain a full sculptured Zodiac and monthly labour
cycle. |
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Angers, Cathédrale
St-Maurice
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Signs of the zodiac
are displayed in circular stained glass panels at the end
of the "spokes" of the upper half of the south rose window,
and labours of the months are shown in a similar way in the
north rose window. And we spent two
hours there (partly enjoying organ practice - the acoustic
is magnificent) and noticed neither of them
...... but nonetheless we do have a photo.
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St-Savin-sur-Gartempe
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There was at one stage
an arch full of painted zodiacs just inside the abbey
church's west door. Nowadays most have worn off
completely, and
even what remains is hardly visible. So, no photos in
Paradoxplace, though there are some of the church and its
famous frescos (now revealed, but in 2007 mostly boarded up for
restoration work). |
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St-Nicholas, Civray
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Near the via Turonensis
south of Poitiers - a damaged but interesting set of archivolt figures.
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St-Pierre, Aulnay
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On the via Turonensis
south of Poitiers - a few surviving archivolt figures,
including a minimalist Gemini twin.
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St-Jean, Bordeaux
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Archivolt of main facade
door has zodiacs and labours of the months. |
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Bazas Cathedral
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On the via Lemovicensis
south of Bergerac - a few surviving archivolt figures on the
facade of this grand old lady. |
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Issoires (South of
Clermont-Ferrand)
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colour coding |
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XXX - Link to Photos in
Paradoxplace
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XXX - Photos in
paradoxplace photo-library but not yet published
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XXX - Link to External Site;
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XXX - No links or photos at this
stage |
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ITALY
roughly north (top) to south
Many of the Italian examples of
this genre are relief panels showing monthly activities, with an small
illustrative Zodiac sign shown in a corner. Interestingly the 4
final "-ber" months in the year are often spelt in English! |
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Venice - San Marco
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The West Door portal of
San Marco has a set of elaborately sculptured labours of the
month scenes. |
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Verona -
San Zeno
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Reliefs
in the portal are well protected and in reasonable condition. |
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Piacenza
- San Savino (near the Duomo)
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Ignore San Savino's
baroque facade, and go inside where there are two
restored polychrome mosaic floors dating from the 1100s. In the crypt are
the signs of the Zodiac and illustrations of monthly
labours and also the tomb of San Savino (the second bishop
of Piacenza who died c 420). The Presbytery floor illustrates
time forever spinning, the
impossibility of holding back the march of time, and the
importance of using time to practice the
cardinal virtues of
Prudence (chess players checking their moves), Fortitude
(knights in arms), Temperance (a man refraining from
drinking) and Justice (a king abiding by the law).
Also of special note here are the anthropomorphic capitals
of the Lombard Romanesque nave columns.
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Piacenza
- Duomo
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The rim of the arch in
front of the central door has bas-reliefs of zodiac signs
set in marble roundels, there are some good narrative
lintels and the facade has some
interesting beasties.
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Parma, Baptistery
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The lower "band" of
the Baptistery exterior has a bas-relief zoophorus running completely round it,
with figures of real and imaginary animals, diabolical and sea monsters,
centaurs, mermaids, unicorns, signs of the zodiac and activities of the
month.
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Ferrara Duomo
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Pisa -
Baptistery
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Monthly activity relief
panels on
a door jam - not very arresting! |
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Lucca
Duomo |
Panels
depicting monthly activities plus small Zodiac signs are on the lower part of the west facade.
An evocative memory for the Dom because this was his first conscious
sighting of "labours of the month" art. If you go there, also cast your eyes up to the "knotted"
marble columns at
each end of the top level of the facade.
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Basilica of San Miniato,
Florence |
A pretty ordinary circular marble "intarsia" floor panel in the
centre of the church depicting the signs of the Zodiac. |
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Arezzo, Santa Maria della Pieve |
A few (probably very obscure) bas-reliefs. |
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Perugia - Fontana Maggiore |
Photos in Gino Casagrande's web page.
There are 12 large double panels - two reliefs illustrating monthly
activities for each month. Small reliefs of the relevant zodiac
sign appear in the corner of the first of each of the double panels. |
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Rome - SS Quattro Coronati (west
facing church) |
Frescos illustrating
the 12 months of the year were discovered in 2002
in a hall
on the north side of the inner courtyard, which was once
part of the nave of a much larger Carolingian church.
"In 2002 art
historian Andreina Draghi discovered an amazing
display of frescoes, dating back to 13th century,
while restoring the Gothic Hall of the monastery. Most of
the scenes were well preserved under a thick layer of
plaster, and represented the Twelve Months, the Liberal
Arts, the Four Seasons and the Zodiac. The image of King
Solomon, a pious and a judge, painted on the northern
wall led scholars to argue the room was meant to be a Hall
of Justice. Plaster was possibly laid after 1348 Black
Death for hygienic reasons, or perhaps in the 15th
century, when the Camaldolese left the monastery."
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Otranto - Mosaic floor of the
Cattedrale di Santa Maria Annunciata |
Deep down in the
"heel" of Italy, the entire floor of the Cattedrale di
Otranto is still covered with the mosaics originally laid in
the mid 1100s. The nave area to the west of the
crossing is occupied by three rows of four large mosaic
roundels - each one illustrating a monthly labour and with the
relevant Zodiac sign as a smaller offset image. Their large size has allowed
their artists to be more inventive and include more detail
than any other set in this list (see below). Because
Otranto in winter is tourist free, it is easy to see most of
the mosaics at close quarters.
Otranto Cattedrale - September grape
treading - Virgo the virgin. |
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Palermo Cathedral, Sicily
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Zodiac "Heliometer"
inset into the floor of the transept. |
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Monreale, Sicily |
Several Zodiac Images
engraved on the "four marble column set" beside the fountain
in the south west corner of the cloisters |
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Holly Hayes' Sacred Destinations has a well laid
out table which brings it all together and some examples from
Germany as well as some of those here.
Wikipedia has a limited Labours of the Month page
which includes references to Books of Hours as well |
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ZODIAC SIGNS IN ISLAM
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Buy from Amazon USA
Buy
from Amazon UK
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The Gemini Twins and
Sagittarius from the 1200s "Vasco Vescovali" made in
Afghanistan or Iran. Illustrations from the
outstanding British Museum book above.
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Adrian Fletcher 2000-2013. The contents may not be hotlinked, or reproduced without permission.
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