Seasons (iconography)

Johann Georg Platzer , Allegory of the Four Seasons, around 1750

The iconography of the four seasons has always played an important role in the visual arts of Europe. Mostly laid out as a four-part cycle , the sequence of spring , summer , autumn and winter symbolized the eternal cycle of nature to which man is subject, growth and decay, growth and maturity, transience and renewal.

The seasons symbolize both the passage of time and the regular, endless return of natural rhythms. Especially in their first meaning they represent a vanitas symbol and have become proverbial for the four ages of human beings.

4th century floor mosaic of the four seasons (Madrid)

The seasons can either appear as allegorical personifications or be designed as seasonal, typified landscapes (often with people doing clearly time-bound agricultural activities). Both forms are closely related to the tradition of monthly pictures ; both genres have influenced each other iconographically over the centuries.

spring

The person of spring is usually a young woman wearing a wreath of flowers and sometimes holding branches of flowers in both hands.

The landscape of the spring is often characterized by plowing and sowing, as well as scattered green.

summer

The person of summer is usually endowed with the attributes of ripe fruits or ears of corn.

The landscape of summer is mostly determined by the depiction of the harvest of grain or grass.

autumn

The person of autumn is often adorned with grapes and brightly colored leaves.

The autumn landscape is often characterized by the representation of the grape harvest.

winter

Because of the cold, the person in winter is usually masked thickly.

The winter landscape is usually immediately recognizable through the snow.

literature

De four jaargetijden in de kunst van de Nederlanden 1500-1750. Edited by Yvette Bruijnen u. a. Waanders, Zwolle 2002, ISBN 90-400-9642-2 (exhibition catalog)
Karen Sabine Meetz: Tempora triumphant: Iconographic studies on the reception of the ancient theme of the seasonal procession in the 16th and 17th centuries and its natural-philosophical, astronomical and pictorial requirements. Phil. Diss. Bonn 2003 (PDF, 32 MB ! )
Derek Pearsall, Elizabeth Salter: Landscapes and seasons of the medieval world. Elek, London 1973, ISBN 0-236-15451-6
Inge Behrmann: Representations of the four seasons on objects of folk art: Investigation of the iconography and history of a motif. Herbert Lang, Bern 1976, ISBN 3-261-01816-X (European university publications ; Series 19, Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology: Department A, Folklore Vol. 10)