Join the American Friends of Chartres to find out how Chaucer’s poetic description inspired by the Labors of the Month matches the art of the north porch and portail royal.
At the dead center of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Franklin’s Tale, part of his Canterbury Tales written in Middle English between 1385-1400, is a striking visual emblem. This passage describes the feeling of winter when the sun is in the zodiac sign Capricorn, and then describes the Roman god Janus sitting by a Christmas feast. It was long ago recognized that this image was derived from the Labors of the Month tradition, a medieval motif in art which pairs zodiac signs with seasonal work or occupations. If this is so, then which version of the Labors of the Month, exactly? Are there visual matches with Chaucer’s poetic description and extant contemporary art? The answer is surprising: the only precise match with Chaucer’s emblem is at Notre-dame de Chartres, on the north porch and portail royal. I explore these analogous images and consider what this parallel may indicate, both for Chaucer’s tale and the cathedral sculptures.
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