September

The series of the twelve "Months" is the most illustrious cycle of tapestries in the Museum. Each tapestry, woven in wool and silk, is dedicated to a month of the year, for which it shows the human labours typical of the month, the fruits, the vegetation and the weather. In each representation there is a didactic text describing the characteristics of that month and of the relative zodiac sign, placed in the upper right corner of each tapestry.
This tapestry cycle was made at the beginning of the sixteenth century, commissioned by Gian Giacomo Trivulzio known as Il Magno (Milan, ca. 1440 - Chartres, 1518) - Marshal of France and Marquis of Vigevano - in a factory set up in Vigevano and directed by the tapestry maker Benedetto da Milano. The preparatory cartoons are attributed to Bartolomeo Suardi known as Bramantino and, from an iconographic point of view, refer to a late mediaeval conception of the illustrated calendar, updated with the inclusion of classical and Renaissance elements.
The tapestries remained the property of the Trivulzio family until they were purchased by the Civic Collections in 1935.
The coherence of the twelve scenes and the recurring iconographic elements (the decorated border, the coat-of-arms of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, the Sun, the zodiacal signs) confirm the unitary origin of the series, which derives from the invention of a single artist. The Trivulzio series of Months was also designed to be displayed in a single room, as if to form a continuous frieze, in counter-clockwise order. The direction is indicated by the gesture with which the figures at the centre of each tapestry point to the Sun in the upper left corner.
Today the group of tapestries is exhibited in the Sala della Balla of the Museum, displayed in such a way that they can be read together and continuously.
The border consists of a continuous frieze of hexagons and in the corners and at the centre of each side is the shield of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio with its green and gold vertical bands. The representation of agricultural work was important to Trivulzio, both for his personal interest in agriculture, but also to affirm a celebratory symbolism inspired by the Latin classics. Exalting rural practices underlined his commitment to peace, as opposed to the abandonment of the fields, synonymous of war. The tapestries thus appear as a political celebration of Trivulzio, bearer and protector of peace in Lombardy so that country folk might devote themselves to the work of the fields, to feast days and ceremonies.
In the tapestry dedicated to the month of September the zodiac signs of Scorpio and Libra are depicted inside a tondo, in the upper right corner. The personification of the month is a young naked man pointing to the Sun in the upper left, with vine leaves around his waist and head. The pedestal on which he stands bears the verses of the month: "September makes the grapes ferment and prepares the wine, gives grateful pleasures to the fowler and gathers the good of all the months" ("SEPTEMBER VVAS VT COQVIT / VINA ET PARAT DAT AVCVPI / GRATAS VOLVPTATES BONA / ET MENSIVM RECOLLIGIT »). The allegorical figure can be interpreted as an image of Bacchus, but it is perhaps more generally an allegory of Autumn, inspired by iconographic forms from Late Antiquity. Behind him, four peasants push the beams of a large press for squeezing the grapes, while all around various jobs are being carried out, related to the grape harvest. Very original is the composition based around the vertical spiral beam of the large grape press, which marks the central axis of the tapestry. Through this expedient, Bramantino expresses his profound interest in perspective. The tight geometric composition is here blocked by the two external figures in the foreground, presumed to be Gian Giacomo Trivulzio and his wife, Margherita Colleoni. Trivulzio, in the guise of the fowler, according to an unusual late-Gothic iconography, personifies hunting - the most noble of activities traditionally included in a cycle of months.