The Cycle of Seasons and Months

Inside the Baptistery, fourteen statues (twelve months and two seasons) are placed in the first loggia on the east side. They are attributed to the Antelami’s construction site that, unfortunately, did not complete the complete cycle. In fact, two seasons are missing (summer and autumn) and the surface of the sculptures still bears the traces of the tools of the workmanship.

It has not yet been ascertained where they were intended to be placed in the layout of Baptistery architecture. Probably the statues were destined to be walled in (as the slab from which the figures come out would lead us to think) in the arch of the first ring of the dome, symmetrically to the angels placed in the spherical caps of the apses at the bottom. It was perhaps Antelami's death or at least a change of plans the reason why they remained unfinished. The statues were placed in the position where they stand now by the painters of the dome, as can be seen by observing the signs of pourings of colors used in the paintings of the dome (1235) on some of them.

Their arrangement in the first gallery on the east side is a reference to the constellation in which the sun is born, an element then highlighted by the succession of zodiac signs, alternately carved on the slab with the statue or in the masonry below to complete (with a set sign) the scene. Thus, a different interpretative point of view from that of Antelami can be observed: he sculpted the work redeemed by Christ to characterize each month. It was done by characters with traits of nobility, elegance and light-heartedness, wearing elegant clothes and featuring revived hair, even in fatigue.

The sequence of the statues starts with the depiction of the month of March (considered the first month of the year, the 25th is the Annunciation of Mary, in homage to the style for the dating of chancery documents) with a young man with the oliphant.

April (the month of Easter) follows, as king of the months with the crown and the royal scepter

then May represented with the figure of a young knight with sickle

The depiction of Spring with noble bearing, crown of flowers and long pleated robe, typologically similar to that with the Queen of Sheba follows

Then June as a farmer who harvests wheat

July with the farmer urging the horses to step on the spikes

August with the farmer preparing the barrels for pressing the grapes

then the depiction of Winter follows, as a mature person dressed in half with a dry tree and a flowering tree behind him, as an allusion to the nature sleeping

finally, the month of September, with the farmer harvesting grapes

the month of October with the sowing farmer

then November with the collection of turnips

then December with the farmer cutting the wood

then January with the typical two-sided iconography of Two-Faced Janus

to end the cycle with the month of February with the farmer digging the earth.