Threshing a cereal crop by hand. Detail of medieval Labours of the Months fresco cycle, painted in ochre in primitive or rustic style. In the cloister attached to the Chiesa di San Nicola (Church of St Nicholas) at the Abbazia di Piona (Piona Abbey), beside Lake Como at Colico, Lombardy, Italy.
Piona Abbey, Colico, Lake Como, Lombardy, Italy: a medieval peasant - or perhaps a monk - threshes a cereal crop by hand in this panel of a medieval fresco cycle painted in ochre in primitive or rustic style in the cloister attached in the mid-13th century to the abbey church, the Chiesa di San Nicola (Church of St Nicholas). The complete fresco cycle combines images of saints with a Labours of the Months calendar featuring seasonal scenes of rural life, including harvesting, pruning trees and slaughtering a pig. Saints featured in the panels include St John the Baptist, St John the Evangelist and St Margaret of Antioch, shown triumphing over Satan disguised as a ferocious dragon. The Abbazia di Piona is a former Benedictine monastic complex, once occupied by reformist Cluniac monks, on the tip of the Olgiasca peninsular, which extends from the eastern shore of the lake’s northern arm. The church of San Nicola replaced a ruined 7th century oratory sometime before 1138, with the cloister added around 1250. The monastery fell into decline before its buildings and lands were seized and sold off in 1798 under Napoleonic rule. The church and cloister were partly restored in the early 20th century and in 1938, Piona came back to life when the Cistercian monks of Casamari Abbey in Lazio acquired the ancient complex. It has since opened to the public.
Size: 4086px × 2714px
Location: Cloister, Chiesa di San Nicola, Abbazia di Piona, Colico, Lake Como, Lombardy, Italy.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: abbazia, abbey, ages, agriculture, art, cereal, chiesa, christian, church, colico, como, country, countryside, crop, , di, farm, farming, field, fields, fresco, grain, hand, italian, italy, kerr, labor, labour, labourer, labours, lake, lombard, lombardic, lombardy, manual, mediaeval, medieval, middle, monk, months, nicholas, nicola, ocher, ochre, painted, painting, peasant, piona, religious, rural, saint, san, st, terence, thresh, threshes, threshing, wall, wheat, work, working
