# Winter, from The Seasons

- By: Charles Le Brun (Woven at the workshop of Étienne Le Blond (French, 1652–1727) and Jean de La Croix (French, 1628–1712) at the…)
- Date: 1700/20
- Medium: Wool and silk, slit and double interlocking tapestry weave
- Classification: Textile
- Dimensions: 540.1 × 384.9 cm (212 5/8 × 151 1/2 in.)
- Culture: Paris
- Credit line: Gift of the Hearst Foundation in memory of William Randolph Hearst
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/80479)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/9547bd79-e45b-5d25-4442-0a666bb5089e/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Winter presents Saturn (the god of agriculture and time) and Juventas (the cupbearer to the gods on Mount Olympus) on a large cloud. The musical instruments and the mask at Juventas’s feet allude to ballet performances and masked balls—the favored pastimes of the French court—while Saturn holds a floral wreath that features a ballet scene. In the foreground, a variety of winter vegetables are visible, along with a cage, nets, a gun, and game of various kinds: the results of a successful hunt. The buildings in the background on the right of the tapestry are identifiable as the Palais du Louvre in Paris. The border imitates a gilt wood frame and contains shell garlands above and below cartouches that feature interlocking Ls surmounted by a crown, a cipher of French king Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715). The tapestry is from a series based on the Four Seasons (Autumn is also in the Art Institute’s collection), after a design by Charles Le Brun, who was appointed director of the Gobelins Manufactory in 1663.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0