Calendar: July (Harvesting and Sheep Shearing) 1416

This is the "July" miniature, illuminated by the Limbourg brothers around 1410, from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. Above the landscape, you'll notice the zodiac symbols for Cancer and Leo, connected to an image of a chariot carrying the sun across the sky. This zodiacal symbolism is far from unique to the 15th century. The division of the year into astrological symbols reaches back to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Similarly, the image of the sun god in a chariot appears in ancient Greek and Roman art, a powerful metaphor for the life-giving force that returns, day after day, year after year. The repetition of these symbols through millennia speaks to something fundamental in the human psyche: a need to understand and control time, to find meaning in the celestial dance. The persistence of these motifs reveals how collective memory shapes our visual language, imbuing images with deep, often subconscious, emotional power. It is a cyclical progression of cultural and psychological motifs resurfacing, evolving, and taking on new meanings throughout history.