estaciones - History Lab

Summer

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:12 +0000

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a Lombard painter who worked at the Habsburg court in Vienna and Prague. His original portraits compose faces from fruit and objects, giving rise to cycles of the seasons

The post Summer first appeared on History Lab.

Lumberjacks or Winter

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:38 +0000

The scene depicted by Fiammingo in the second half of the 16th century represents one of the typical tasks of the European peasantry of the time. Winter, a season characterised by cold weather, requires wood to be obtained in order to light a fire and keep the family’s outbuildings warm.

The post Lumberjacks or Winter first appeared on History Lab.

Mowing and shearing or The Summer

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:33 +0000

Fiammingo’s composition depicts two of the typical scenes of 16th-century European peasantry, reflecting, through a vertical division in the composition, the activities of harvesting and shearing. After the winter and the subsequent spring, the rains have taken effect in the plantations for the subsequent harvesting of foodstuffs with which to subsist during the coming winter. With the same eagerness, the shearers collect the wool that has protected their animals from the cold to shelter them from the harsh climate that awaits them in a few months’ time.

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Seasonality of work by sex. S’Estorell, 1658-1673

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:48 +0000

The demand for agricultural wage labour was highly seasonal, limiting the possibilities of converting it into a regular source of income. The development of agrarian capitalism contributed to this, which led to a productive specialisation in which the participation of women was lower than in the manufacturing and service sectors. The s’Estorell estate was located in the parish of Binissalem, at the foot of the Tramontana mountain range, and was the largest estate in the municipality and one of the ten most profitable on the island, with a valuation of 52,000 pounds according to the land registry of 1685. It covered 520 hectares, occupying the Almandrá valley up to the first peaks of the mountain range in the villages of Alaró and Selva. The work roles assigned to men and women could be broken when the concurrence of different work demands for different tasks in the same season demanded it. From September to January, female and child labour was absorbed in its entirety by the carob harvest (September) and later for the olive harvest (October-January). Once the olive season was over, women joined in January or February the spring weeding for cereals, generally in April and May. On the other hand, the men’s work began in August with the clearing of the olive groves (August-October) and continued from November to January with the digging of the olive trees, which was interspersed with the digging of the wheat fields. In February they began pruning the olive trees (February-April) and then grafting the olive trees (May). In summer, the demand for agricultural labour was concentrated on harvesting, although some labour was also assigned to forestry activities such as charcoal production. Seasonality was, however, a notable anomaly. Around 44% of the working days were contributed by labourers and 56% by day labourers. Female labour accounted for 75% of the working days, male labourers for 17% and child labour was absent, at least in the account books.

The post Seasonality of work by sex. S’Estorell, 1658-1673 first appeared on History Lab.