I have been incorrectly identifying the church within the grounds of Prague Castle as St. Stephen's. Wrong. It's St. Vitus. I can't tell them apart anyway. But we found these fascinating small reliefs on a gate along the side. Turns out they are illustrations of the labors of the months of the year. I used to Claude to find out, on the theory that Anthropic is marginally less evil than OpenAI. What it tells me:
Winter into spring
- January (Aquarius): A man in a fur coat warms his hands by a pot over a fire while a woman kneels at the hearth.
- February (Pisces): Women spin thread at a spinning wheel inside a cottage with a crucifix on the wall.
- March: One man prunes a young tree while another stands beside him.
- April: A sower scatters seed in a windswept field.
Summer
- May (Gemini): A young man plays a pipe beside a woman at a well, a courtship scene. A Czech stamp issued in 1986 is titled “Allegory of May,” after a Horejc grating at St. Vitus, so this may be the same panel. cpslib
- June (Cancer): One man mows with a scythe while another sharpens a blade, with a village church tower behind them.
- July (Leo): A reaper in the field drinks from a jug while a woman binds sheaves.
- August: Two people thresh grain with flails. The small plaque below is hard to make out, but Virgo would fit here.
Autumn into winter
- September (Libra): A woman holds a basket while a man on a ladder picks fruit from a tree.
- October (Scorpio): A grape harvest, with a man and woman beside heavy vines.
- November (Sagittarius): An elderly couple carries bundles of firewood and brushwood.
- December (Capricorn): A pig slaughter, with a carcass hung from a frame.
I hope I got the order right.
No comments:
Post a Comment