The Months: January

Engraving, part of a series of twelve oval prints with allegorical representations of the months with the seasonal labors inherited from the Middle Ages. The activities illustrated in the series do not seem to have a moral sense, and depict relatively simple scenes with characters dressed in simple garbs, executing their labors in rustic landscapes. In this print, January is represented by an interior scene dominated by the astrological sign of Aquarius, attribute of the month. The scene is made up of a couple, dining at a table covered with a tablecloth, who are being served their food by two servants, one of them pouring water from an ewer into a goblet (an allusion to Aquarius). The house owner is on the left, sitting on a luxurious chair with his back against a fire; next to him sits a woman, her head slightly tilted and turned towards him. On the right, in an adjacent chamber, a woman is cooking in front of a chimney. The domestic wellbeing represented in the scene is symbolized by two fireplaces, the man sitting with a cuchion on his back, a cat under his chair, and two dogs under the table. The image follows the medieval tradition of the labors of the month of January represented in the "Compost et Kalendrier des Bergers."