March calendar image

Simon Bening (1483/84 – 1561), son of the prominent painter Alexander (Sanders) Bening, was a famous illuminator with very successful workshops in the wealthy Flemish towns of Ghent and Bruges.

In the calendar page of March motifs from the life of nobility are combined with rural scenes. It is part of a small collection of eight calendar pictures (in the British Library: March and June on rectos, December and July verso – four further ones are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London). The sequence of these miniatures does not allow any conclusion that they were meant for a codex, so they must have been painted by the master to serve as models in his workshop.