This panoramic shot was taken when I was much younger and at that time, was often to be found walking my herd of pigs through the woods in the lands stretching out for miles around the castle — everything you see here, all owned by my German ancestral family — whilst at the same time, beating the trees for ripe, juicy acorns for the pigs and, for their cultural edification (as we can’t just feed their stomachs, we also have to feed the inner pig), declaiming verses of Shakespeare and Ovid or singing them snatches from the very latest ditties that the minstrels had brought to town, simultaneously showing off to admiring glances from my envious fellow-herders, my pudding bowl haircut, my prominent single eye and the rather lush gold highlights on the sleeve of my a la mode tunic….
Oh, wait, no, that’s not quite right now, is it?
The (admittedly) Cyclopean pig-herder and the rest of the detail in this glorious canvas is taken from “Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry“, a stunningly wrought book, created sometime between c. 1412 and 1416 by the Limbourg brothers, for their patron, the extravagant royal bibliophile, John, Duke of Berry. They all then died that same year from the plague; not a completely unknown problem at this time. I love, love, love this picture. And there’s an almost fractal level of detail visible via the museum’s website digitised copy of the book which would repay a few minutes of your time. Put your feet up, sink into the depths and soak up the colours and vibrancy.
