April, come she will

April
Duc de Berry Book of Hours


Time has shed its cloak of wind, rain and cold,
to assume the embroidery of the sun,
shining bright and beautiful.

Charles d' Orleans

It doesn't feel like April in Seattle, but here she comes. Was the weather nicer six hundred years ago? The medieval Book of Hours calendar shows a warm and charming new season. A young couple is exchanging betrothal rings outdoors in front of the girl's parents. Her pale blue dress stands out against her mother's black, and she lowers her eyes while the groom-to-be searches out her glance. The mother and father look at their daughter affectionately. Nearby, maidens are picking violets in the lawn. It is an intimate and subtle composition.

In this little painting, the Limbourg artists may have been depicting a real event. There's a village nearby, and in the background the river Orge flows in front of Chateau Dourdan. In April 1410, the Duc de Berry's eleven-year-old granddaughter Bonne (so young!) became engaged to the prince and poet Charles d' Orleans, who was then sixteen. The wedding was held four months later, and the rich Duc promised Dourdan to his future great-grandson. The ruins of the Dourdan Chateau in central France can still be seen:


April, come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with rain;
May, she will stay--
Resting in my arms again.

Simon and Garfunkle