August from a set of Medallion Months

Bernard van Orley

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Like the Ages of Man tapestries (also on display in this gallery and perhaps designed in the same artist's workshop), the subject of this tapestry explores the cyclical nature of time. Embodying August, a laborer, winnowing grain from a shallow basket, has discarded his outer clothing under a hot, harvest sun. Another threshes corn. Above the landscape vista, Ceres, Goddess of the Harvest, observes the scene. A Zodiacal belt encloses this medallion, with Virgo triumphant. Pairs of women with hourglasses separate the signs, whilst the background shifts from bright daylight through dusk to dark night, thence back through dawn to day. In the upper corners are SEGESSA (Segesta), goddess of the standing crop, and CUCULINA (Tutulina), protector of stored grain. In the lower corners are further charmingly-observed scenes of country life.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art