May

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.

The "May" tapestry has Gemini as the zodiac sign of
the month, pictured above right. In
the centre of the room, on a stone block raised on a stepped platform is a
monarch crowned and dressed in ancient style, enveloped in a large white
mantle. His
foot rests on a sphere and with the sceptre he points towards the sun, while he
looks at a branch laden with leaves and fruit held in his left hand. At his feet are seated two pages, beside a
bowl full of cherries, while four men in the corners offer branches to the
monarch. On the
sides are depicted peasants, dressed in classical tunics, with tools for
haymaking – the agricultural activity of the month - on their shoulders. Behind them, in the background is an octagonal
pavilion that marks the scene. The
architectural solution chosen here by Bramantino is surprising and there are no
parallels or similarities in Lombard Renaissance art.

The caption appears engraved on a tablet: "May fills the year with hope. As the blossom falls it brings the fruit. It is propitious for the good and useful
things of springtime "(" SPE REPLET ANNVM. FLORIBVS / CADENTIBVS QVE SVGGERIT / FRVCTVS. DECORVM ET
VTILE / MAIVS FAVET VERIS PONI»).

The scene appears as a profane "sacred conversation".
The central group recalls the invention of Bramantino in his "Adoration of
the Magi" in the National Gallery in London, contemporaneous or just
preceding his creation of the cartoon for this tapestry, in which reality and
allegory coexist . The
allegorical interpretation is invoked by the ancient robes of the peasants and
the personification of the month of May as a king, which recalls some mediaeval
allegories and fifteenth and sixteenth-century images of the "Months"
in which May is represented as a monarch. The figures offering the branches recall
the countryman who carries on his shoulders the "majo", that is a
branch that was gathered and carried as a token of love to the house of the
woman he loved on the first of May, according to the rituals of the feast of
"Kalendas majas ". If
the tapestry therefore represents a phase of the festival of May, probably the
figure in the centre is one of those "kings of the feast" elected on
such occasions and it is plausible that Bramantino depicted in this tapestry a
spring ritual in which Gian Giacomo Trivulzio usually participated.