Labors of the Months: February to June

This tapestry, of exceptionally elongated format, depicts a couple for each month. For four of the months—February, March, and April—the figures are engaged in agricultural work. In June, only the man is shown using a tool. In the pleasant month of May, two young people are strolling and then taking a bath together.

Common throughout the Middle Ages in church decorations or at the beginning of liturgical books, the iconography of the Labors of the Months is here adapted to a tapestry likely intended for indoor decoration. According to Monica Stucky-Schürer, it may have been used as a "bed valance" in a reception room.

The fragment depicting the months from July to December belonged, like the one in the Musée de Cluny, to the collection of Joseph von Lassberg (1770–1855) in the mid-19th century. In 1867, the Victoria and Albert Museum purchased this second fragment from Canon Franz Bock (1823–1899), a key figure in the history of medieval European textiles. The fragment that is part of the Musée de Cluny’s collections, likely also once in the possession of Canon Bock, passed through the late 19th century, the entire 20th century, and the first decades of the 21st century among the descendants of Gustave Maurice du Plessis (1839–1902), a property owner and annuitant, between Paris, Touraine, and the western regions of France.

The tapestry’s weaving is of high quality, with graceful simplification of plants and animals, and charming representations of fieldwork: for example, the young woman raising her whip above the oxen during plowing, or the leisure activities of the month of May. The state of conservation is generally good, despite some reweaving between the scenes. The colors have retained much of their freshness. In a corpus that includes fewer than 150 pieces, the reappearance and donation of this piece to the Musée de Cluny is a notable event.