The Labours of the Months: June
This is one of 12 small pictures that together show the 'labours of the months' - the activities that take place each month throughout the farming year.
A barefoot young man sits holding a sheaf of corn he has cut in one hand and his scythe in the other. The sleeves of his blue jacket are rolled up and a straw hat shades his face, suggesting that this little painting represents one of the summer months. We think it may be June, when grain crops are harvested in northern Italy where this picture was painted.
These 12 small pictures may have been made to decorate the recessed panels of a pair of doors, and seem to have been planned in pairs with the figures facing each other. They show the 'labours of the months' - the rural activities that take place each month throughout the year.
They are now framed in two groups of six, arranged in an order which reflects that in other, similar cycles and seems to make sense in relation to the seasons depicted, although we cannot be certain this is the original order.
January: A warmly dressed old man sits by a stove.
February: Trimming stakes with a hatchet.
March: Pruning the vines.
April: A cooper making a barrel.
May: A young man holds two rods.
June: A labourer holds a sheaf of corn he has cut with his scythe.
July: A labourer threshes grain with a flail.
August: Exhausted from fruit picking, a labourer sleeps beneath a tree.
September: The vines are harvested and the grapes pressed.
October: The field is ploughed.
November: A hunter with his hawk and hounds.
December: Slaughtering a pig.
Credit: Layard Bequest, 1916