Chartres Cathedral; zodiac signs and labors of the months; archivolts, left portal, west facade.
 
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Title:Chartres Cathedral; zodiac signs and labors of the months; archivolts, left portal, west facade
Notes:Detail of archivolts depicting the signs of the zodiac and the labors of the months. Scorpio (the scorpion) is seen here, and above Scorpio is the month of December, showing a husband and wife celebrating a holiday festivity of feasting. [Villette, pg. 54] The signs of the zodiac represent the passage of celestial time; the labors of the months represent the passage of terrestrial time. The juxtaposition of the two cycles began to appear in church portals in the twelfth century.

Digitized from the slide collection of James T. Womack, Nashville, TN.

Date:1145
Building:Cathédrale de Chartres
City/Town:Chartres
Country:France

General Subject:Zodiac
Scorpio
Labors of the months
Library of Congress Subject:Christian art and symbolism -- France -- Chartres -- Medieval, 500-1500
ICONCLASS Number:23O42
23K43
Index of Christian Art Number:20 C48 CND 14W,001 B2

Permalink: https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=26363
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Copyright Source:image donated by Jim Womack and Anne Richardson
Copyright Permission:Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0
Attribution:Chartres Cathedral; zodiac signs and labors of the months; archivolts, left portal, west facade, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=26363 [retrieved March 29, 2024]. Original source: image donated by Jim Womack and Anne Richardson.
Record Number:26363 Last Updated: 2022-06-17 14:20:49 Record Created: 2002-03-21 00:00:00
Institution:Vanderbilt University Collection: Art in the Christian Tradition

Bibliographic Source:Villette, Jean. Les Portails de la cathedrale de Chartres. Editions J.M. Garnier, 1994.