The Months: February

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, February is represented in a domestic universe dominated by Pisces, the attribute of the month. On the left, an old man wearing a fur-lined cloak (pelisse) sits in front of a chimney; behind him, a woman inclines towards the fire, holding a distaff, and a male servant holds a bundle of firewood. On the right, the print contains an outdoors scene with a man cutting wood. The woman with the distaff, posing her hand on the old man's shoulder, could be interpreted as representing death, the allegorical meaning of the scene representing the month of February as a meditation on age and death.