Wednesday, December 1, 2010

December

Happy holidays from the Book of Hours December calendar page.The hunt is almost over, the wild boar has been run to ground and the dogs are tearing it apart. Hopefully, there's something left over for the rich Duc Du Berry's dinner table:

Above the hunt scene, Scorpio pulls ahead of Sagittarius on the Zodiac. In the miniature painting, the towers of the Château de Vincennes are visible across the forest, shining like a white city. Once a hunting lodge in the countryside, the castle is now a tourist attraction in the suburbs of Paris:
December

Love awoke one winter's night

And wander'd through the snowbound land,

And calling to beasts and birds
Bid them his message understand.

And from the forest all wild things
That crept or flew obeyed love's call,

And learned from him the golden words

Of brotherhood for one and all.


Author unknown



Hunt of the Unicorn
Flemish Tapestry
c. 1495

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