Summer

A man crowned with wheat ears and a woman carrying a milkmaid's yoke stand in the foreground with a horse and cow. In the background, laborers harvest grain under a blazing sun where a small figure of Cupid aims an arrow, symbolizing the heat of the season. The scene is filled with specific markers of rural life, including a scythe, buckets of milk, and a farmyard chicken.

As part of a series on the Four Seasons, this work illustrates the Renaissance concept of the correspondence between the macrocosmic celestial cycles and the microcosmic activities of man. In the esoteric tradition of natural philosophy, Summer is typically associated with the element of Fire and the choleric temperament, representing the peak of vital solar energy.