On the right, a man is hunched over a bag; doubtless it contains seeds for sowing. In the background, a shepherd is accompanied by his sheepdog. The Chateau de Lusignan, in the Poiteau region of France, dominates the scene. The castle was modernised by the Duc de Berry, its owner. To the right of the image, above one of the towers, flies a winged dragon representing the fairy Melusine. In 1392, Jean d’Arras wrote the Noble histoire de Lusignan, also known as the Roman de Mélusine, for Jean de Berry. It is the story of the fairy, an imaginary ancestor of the Duc de Berry. According to legend, Mélusine gave birth to the Lusignan bloodline and built the fortress. The wife of Raymondin de Lusignan, she promised him wealth and happiness, on the condition that he must never see her on Saturdays, when she took on the appearance of a dragon. One day, Raymondin broke his promise and watched his wife bathing. Thus unmasked, the fairy fled.

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During the Middle Ages, vines surrounded towns and cities almost regardless of climate. This proximity was doubtless a means of avoiding transporting the wine, which was subject to heavy taxes and the various hazards of the period. People only drank wine produced in their local area. Vine cultivation boomed in the Middle Ages. Anything was preferable to water! Viticulture is very widely represented in illuminations – the only iconography of the time to show genre scenes. The liturgical and symbolic importance of wine to the Christian world, like that of bread, gave it a choice position in the culture’s iconography. The trimming of the vines in February or March, crucial for future production, is one of the most common motifs, especially in calendars.

Images of miniatures and manuscripts certainly give us greater insight into life in the Middle Ages, especially in terms of the peasants’ labour over the course of the agricultural year. The iconographic theme of the calendar allows this to be depicted fully. Illumination is the only iconography of the time to show genre scenes.Viticulture is very widely represented in illuminations – the only iconography of the time to show genre scenes.In the 12th and 13th centuries, representations of the months featuring peasants at work figured in church décor, appearing on doorways, column heads and stained glass windows. It was also from this period that calendars began to adorn many liturgical texts. Although representations of work by month dwindled in the 14th and 15th centuries, appearing only on a few secular buildings, such images continued to decorate prayer books. By adopting pagan imagery already embedded in Greco-Roman Antiquity, the Church and its theologians gave a new sense to these scenes: that of Man, after the fall of Adam and Eve, suffering work as both a punishment and a means to redemption.