The month of March in the Cathedral Mosaic

March is the month of the resumption of agricultural activities, and its most widespread image in the artistic field refers to the tying or pruning of vines.

Winter is drawing to a close, and work in the fields has resumed: at the end of the day, the farmer, seated on a stool, is intent on cleaning his left foot with a suitable tool. The depiction of March is accompanied by the zodiac sign of Pisces, the twelfth and final sign of the zodiac. The Christian year begins at the end of this month, with the spring equinox, under the sign of Aries and coinciding with the Incarnation (the Archangel Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin), the beginning of the Christian history of salvation, the inauguration of redemption, and the new age, which Saint Augustine called sub gratia. The scene is accompanied by the indication of the month (Mar/tius).

March is the month of the resumption of agricultural activities, and its most widespread image in art refers to the tying or pruning of vines. In the monthly cycles of Northern Europe, especially in France, spring is heralded early with the inclusion of the first flowers in medieval Italian depictions and calendars. This month's depiction often takes the form of an allegorical hornblower, the so-called Marcius cornator, a figure with disheveled hair blowing two horns, a symbol of the winds and storms of early spring.

In Otranto, it is possible that once again the Otranto context refers to a realistic, rather than allegorical, detail: in the absence of a specific activity, attention is focused on a daily and necessary act (such as wiping one's tired feet), or rather on those small physical ailments that the Middle Ages attributed to the month.

From: "Mondi medievali" by Stefania Mola