Der Monat Juli (Werkstattkopie)

Der Monat Juli (Werkstattkopie) — July (Workshop Copy) — at the Bavarian State Painting Collections is an undated work explicitly identified as a workshop copy of Leandro Bassano's month of July composition, one of the series of calendar paintings depicting agricultural and domestic activities associated with each month of the year. The monthly calendar cycle had ancient origins in manuscript illumination and was revived as a major genre in sixteenth-century Netherlandish and Italian painting, finding particular expression in the Bassano family's serial treatments of seasonal and monthly subjects. A workshop copy represents a second or later version of a composition that achieved success in its original form, produced by apprentices or journeymen working from the original as a model. The Bavarian State Painting Collections, which encompass the holdings of several Bavarian royal and state collections, include Italian and Venetian works acquired over several centuries of patronage and collecting.

Oil on canvas, as a workshop copy the handling will be somewhat more mechanical and less individually responsive than autograph work, though working from the original would ensure compositional accuracy. July compositions in the Bassano calendar series typically show harvest activities — reaping grain, stacking sheaves, workers and animals in open summer fields. The palette would be warm and sun-drenched, consistent with midsummer outdoor work.