December — The Boar Hunt at Vincennes

The calendar closes in violence and skill: hounds have cornered and are savaging a wild boar in the Bois de Vincennes, a royal hunting forest just east of Paris, while huntsmen close in with spears and a horn-blower signals the kill to the rest of the party moving through the trees behind. Winter hunting supplied the aristocratic table through the coldest months, and the scene is rendered with real anatomical attention to the dogs' straining bodies and the boar's fury. The zodiac lunette carries Sagittarius into Capricorn, completing the wheel that began with the Duke's New Year feast — the calendar's year closing exactly where it opened, on Valois land and Valois appetite.

Maker

The Limbourg Brothers (Herman, Paul & Jean de Limbourg); later folios completed by Jean Colombe

Date

c. 1412–1416

Medium of the original

Illuminated manuscript

Original held by

Musée Condé, Chantilly

Credit

Musée Condé, Chantilly

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00916