
ca. 1515
Da Costa hours
Illuminated by Simon Bening (1483/84–1561)
Ghent, Belgium
172 x 125 mm
MS M.399, fol. 12v
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), 1910
Catalog link
Occupation of the month: November―Within a farmyard enclosed by buildings, including a dovecote, two men, within a ring of flax laid out on the ground, break flax with implements. To the left under a shed, a woman scutches flax with a scutching knife. She is seated on a chair beside a bundle of flax. A hen and pigs inhabit the farmyard. Within a building to the left, a man appears in a doorway raising an implement, possibly a flail.
The scene is within an illusionistic wood frame.