The Labors of the Months: Cutting Faggots (March) 1530 - 1565

Jean Pénicaud II crafted this enamel plaque around 1530, a miniature tableau of the labors of March. Dominating the scene, three figures engage in the quintessential task of wood gathering, their actions a timeless rhythm of human survival. Note the figure wielding a billhook, its curved blade echoing the crescent moon above, a symbol deeply rooted in ancient lunar calendars marking the passage of time and seasons. The sickle, initially associated with agriculture and the harvest, finds an earlier echo in depictions of Cronus, the god of time, castrating his father, Uranus, suggesting a cutting away of the old to make way for the new. Observe how such imagery has evolved, resurfacing in different guises across centuries, its primal roots in human consciousness ever-present, the act of cutting and shaping, of controlling nature, resonates still within the human psyche, an echo of our ancestors striving to harness the world around them.