The Labours of the Months: December

The 12 small pictures in this group show the ‘labours of the months’ – the rural activities that take place each month throughout the year. They were painted on canvas and then each glued to a wooden panel. It is possible that they were made to decorate the recessed panels of a pair of doors. The paintings seem to have been planned in pairs with the figures facing each other, and they are currently displayed in two frames in groups of six.In what we believe is the final painting of this series, a man wearing a white apron and holding a knife slaughters a grey pig by slitting its throat. The butcher kneels on the pig and holds its snout shut to stop it struggling. It looks as though the pig’s trotters have also been tied. Blood flows from the red gash in the pig’s neck into a ceramic dish on the ground. The pig seems to be lying on a wooden box or block outside a simple rendered brick building, which may be the same one we see in the months of January and July.In cycles of ‘labours of the months’, slaughtering pigs is traditionally associated with December and feasting.