A Colheita do Feno (início do verão, junho/julho)

In 1565 a rich Antwerp merchant, Niclaes Jonghelinck, commissioned Bruegel to paint the whole turning year for one room of his house, a set of large panels each holding a stretch of months. This one carries early summer, June into July. Peasants come down a path toward us with rakes and baskets, a woman sharpening a scythe, the fields already mown behind them and the fruit coming in. What was new was where Bruegel put your eye. There is no saint and no story, just the labour and the weather, seen from slightly above so the land rolls away for miles to pale hills. Of the original set only five panels survive. This one left the group long ago and hangs apart from its companions, in the Lobkowicz collection at Prague Castle.