Autumn

In line with the old tradition of calendar illustration, harvesting the wine forms the main motif for depicting autumn. As with the other pictures of this series of seasons, a scene from the Old Testament is depicted in the background: the handing over of the Tablets of the Ten Commandments to Moses. Jacopo Bassano makes use of a simple compositional scheme: the activities of humans, pets and implements are rowed up in the style of a frieze before a rural background, and reproduced with vivid realism.