Mayo Astrology A critique Astro Planet Tour
Mayo Astrology
A critique
Astro Planet Tour
Since ancient times astrologers have connected the movement of the planets to daily life on Earth. In charting these movements, astrologers look to the ecliptic, the apparent path of the sun across the sky during a calendar year. In the course of their orbits around the sun, the planets all revolve within a narrow band, which incorporates the ecliptic at its centre. Following this band, the planets and the sun and the moon cross twelve constellations that make up the signs of the zodiac Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. The Zodiac owes its name to the bestiary that inhabits it. The twelve signs were also called 'houses of heaven' or 'monthly residences of Apollo', referring to the Greek and Roman god of the sun who visits a new 'house' every month and returns every spring to begin again. It should be noted, however, that when astronomers speak of Aries, they are referring to the constellation Aries, whereas astrologers speak of Aries, they mean the sign of Aries, that is, one of the twelve areas of the zodiac that the sun takes a month to cross. There was a time, in the second century B.C., when signs and constellations co-incided with each other; unfortunately, the precession of the equinoxes, that slippage of the sun's 'path' through the stars has played a nasty trick on astrologers: as the point at which the sun crosses the equator in the spring is progressively altered, so are the astrologers signs. The effect of this is that today an astrological sign falls across a constellation different from the one that gave it its name. For example, the sign of Aries now covers the constellation of Pisces. However, astrologers believe that the area of the sky in which the constellation of Aries used to lie, more than two thousand years ago, has retained that animal's positive virtues. Consequently Leo continues to represent strength, Gemini tenderness, and so on.
JANUARY The month of giving New Years' gifts (a custom which seems
to have died out now). Jean de Berry himself can be seen
on the right, wearing the brilliant blue robe.
FEBRUARY Winter in a peasant village. The inhabitants of a farm are
shown warming themselves by the fire, while in the background
daily life - cutting wood, taking cattle to the market - goes
on as normal.
MARCH The year's first farm work, sowing and ploughing and suchlike.
The chateau in the background is that of Lusignan, one of
the Duc's favourites.
APRIL The arrival of spring, hope and new life - the grass is green
and a newly betrothed couple are exchanging rings in the
foreground, accompanied by friends and family. The chateau is
another one of the Duc's, that of Dourdan.
MAY The May jaunt, a pageant celebrating the "joli mois de Mai"
in which one had to wear green garments known as livree de
mai. The riders are young noblemen and women, with princes
and princesses being visible. In the background is a chateau
thought to be the Palais de la Cite in Paris.
JUNE Harvest time - the peasants are moving the meadow in
unison, with the Hotel de Nesle, the Duc's Parisian
residence, in the background.
JULY More of the harvest; the sheep are being shorn and the
hay is being reaped. The chateau behind them is that which
formerly stood on the Clain at Poitiers.
AUGUST The month of hawking; the nobles, carrying falcons, are
going hunting while in the background peasants are harvesting
and swimming in the river. Behind them is the Chateau
d'Etampes.
SEPTEMBER Probably the most famous of the calendar images. The grapes
are being harvested by the peasants and carried into the
beautifully detailed Chateau de Saumur.
OCTOBER Tilling and sowing are being carried out by the peasants,
in the shadow of the Louvre - Charles V's royal palace in
Paris.
NOVEMBER This is the only calendar image executed by Colombe; the
Limbourgs painted only the zodiacal tympanum above it. The
picture shows the autumn acorn harvest, with a peasant
knocking down throwing sticks to knock down the acorns on
which his pigs are feeding.
DECEMBER In the forest of Vincennes, fabled for its game, a wild-boar
hunt has caught a boar which is being torn apart by the
boarhounds. In the background is the Chateau de Vincennes,
long a residence of French royalty.
WHAT IS THE TRES RICHES HEURES?
The Tres Riches Heures is _the_ classic example of a medieval book of
hours. This was a collection of the text for each liturgical hour of the
day - hence the name - which often included other, supplementary, texts.
Calendars, prayers, psalms and masses for certain holy days were commonly
included.
The pictures in this directory are from the calendar section of the Tres
Riches Heures. This was painted some time between 1412 and 1416 and is
arguably the most beautiful part of the manuscript; it is certainly the
best known, being one of the great art treasures of France. In
terms of historical and cultural importance, it is certainly equal to more
famous works such as the Mona Lisa, marking the pinnacle of the art of
manuscript illumination.
WHO PAINTED THE TRES RICHES HEURES?
The Tres Riches Heures was painted by the Limbourg brothers, Paul,
Hermann and Jean. They came from Nimwegen in what is now Flanders but
were generally referred to as Germans. Very little is known about them;
they are believed to have been born in the late 1370s or 1380s and were
born into an artistic family, their father being a wood sculptor and their
uncle being an artist working variously for the French Queen and for the
Duc de Bourgogne.
They seem to have followed in their uncle's footsteps and by 1402 had
entered into the service of the Duc de Bourgogne as artists. By 1408 they
had entered the service of Jean, Duc de Berry, one of the most notable
(and richest!) art lovers in France. They are known to have executed
several other pieces of work apart from the Tres Riches Heures but most
of these, with the major exception of the Tres Belles Heures, seem to have
been lost. In around February 1416 all three Limbourg brothers died before
the age of thirty, apparently killed by an epidemic.
WHO WAS THEIR PATRON?
Jean de Berry was one of the highest nobles in 15th-century France -
his brothers were King Charles V, the Duc d'Anjou and the Duc de
Bourgogne, and his nephews were King Charles VI and the Duc d'Orleans.
He was inevitably involved in politics as a result of his position and
was identified with the Armagnac anti-Burgundian faction, as a result
of which his property was attacked on several occasions by pro-Burgundian
mobs. (On one such occasion, in 1411, his Chateau de Bicetre was burned to
the ground, destroying many of the works of the Limbourgs). In 1416 he
died, apparently broken-hearted at the destruction of the French monarchy
at Agincourt the previous year.
He was the medieval world's greatest connoisseur of the visual arts,
with a particular fondness for jewels, castles, works of art and exotic
animals. Among his extraordinarily varied collection were chateaux such as
Saumur and Bicetre, rubies weighing up to 240 carats, a collection of
ostriches and camels and - most importantly from our point of view - a
magnificent collection of books. He owned astronomical treatises, mappa
mondes, and a large number of religious books: 14 Bibles, 16 psalters,
18 breviaries, 6 missals and no less than 15 Books of Hours, including
of course the Tres Riches Heures.
HOW DID THEY PAINT THE TRES RICHES HEURES?
The Limbourgs used a wide variety of colours obtained from minerals,
plants or chemicals and mixed with either arabic or tragacinth gum to
provide a binder for the paint. Amongst the more unusual colours they
used were vert de flambe, a green obtained from crushed flowers mixed
with massicot, and azur d'outreme, an ultramarine made from crushed Middle
Eastern lapis-lazuli, used to paint the brilliant blues. (This was, of
course, extremely expensive!)
The extremely fine detail which was the characteristic feature of the
Limbourgs needed extremely fine brushes and, almost certainly, lenses.
Later additions to the Tres Riches Heures carried out by the late 14th-
century artist Jean Colombe were carried out in a rather less delicate
way. The calendars, however, were mostly painted by the Limbourgs; only
November includes a substantial amount of Colombe's work.