MS M.399, fol. 8v

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Da Costa hours
Illuminated by Simon Bening (1483/84–1561)

Ghent, Belgium
ca. 1515
172 x 125 mm

Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), 1910

MS M.399, fol. 8v
Description: 

Occupation of the month: July―In a field, two men mow hay with scythes. To the left, two yoked horses graze. Behind them, a man extends hay on a pitchfork toward a man on top of a haystack. A ladder leans against the stack. To the right, a woman carrying a basket on her head and a flagon in her left hand walks toward the men. In the background within a second field, a woman gathers mown hay into haystacks. Beyond that field, a horseman and a man following a horse pulling a cart ascend a road leading to a windmill at the top of a hill. Buildings of a city are visible in the distance.
The scene is within an illusionistic wood frame.

Credits: 

Image courtesy of Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz/Austria.