Pierre Reymond

Based on a French engraving, this calendar plate depicts workers pruning grapevines. The figures are surrounded by classical ornament in grisaille (white on black) enamel and accented with peach skin tones and gilding. Inscribed Martius (Latin for March), the plate features stylized ram’s horns-the zodiac sign for Aries-at the top of the rim.

Secular calendar plates illustrating the labors of each month were made beginning in the 1540s by artists in Limoges, France, the leading center for enamelware. Production of painted enamels began there in the late 1400s with polychrome religious devotional plaques, then expanded throughout the 1500s to include grisaille tablewares for domestic use and decoration.