Labors of the Months: December

Hans Wertinger's December from his Labors of the Months series presents the winter activities of slaughter, salting, and preparation of preserved foods that characterized December in the agricultural cycle. The killing of pigs and cattle and the preservation of their meat for winter consumption was among the most important collective activities of the pre-modern agricultural year, and its depiction in calendar imagery celebrated the community's provision against hunger. Wertinger's precise observation of the winter landscape and the specific activities of December butchering and food preparation creates an unusually vivid document of Bavarian peasant material culture.

The painting demonstrates the technical conventions and artistic vocabulary of the period, with attention to composition, color, and the rendering of form appropriate to the subject.