The central medallion of the tapestry encloses a cartoon of activities relevant to the month of April, overlooked by the figure of Flora (give romana of flowers and spring, holding a vase of flowers and identified by the inscription), the traditional classical deity associated with the month, who sits in the clouds observes a rich nobleman with horses on horseback together with his lady who rides in the saddle behind of him, in the background the land has been plowed and sown, and a family looks on, with a child holding a flower and basket, over a landscape overflowing with flowers, budding trees and mushrooms, all characteristic of April, the circular band surrounding the central medallion has winged cherubs alternating with stars, on a soft blue ground, with a bull symbolic of the Taurus zodiac above, the tall spandrels with figured allegorical depictions of the south and east winds, Noto and Eolo (Aeolus), and the lower spandrels with a woman weaving a wreath and a man sowing seeds, within a quadrilateral compartmented border of garlands of flowers and fruit, with further narrow inner and outer yellow and blue twisted borders, the upper corners of the tapestry enclose a scroll and the lower corners have masks, with further narrower selvedges. 379 cm high and 436 cm wide. largo, will be present at the “ROYAL & NOBLE” auction at Sotheby's London on 17 January starting from an estimate of €34,506 – €57,510.
Although allegorical representations of months and seasons have been seen in medieval tapestries, the Mesi Trivulzio woven near Milan during the Renaissance between 1504 and 1512 are the earliest known series to represent each month separately. The second series identified is the Medallion Months, of which this month of April is a part, which was woven in Brussels around 1525-28. Three partial and slightly different sets of Medallion Month tapestries are known to have been handed down and all have examples from the month of April.
In addition to April, the Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Washington DC exhibits a tapestry of April, probably one of the "editio princeps", from the set of Cardinal Erard de la Marck in 1531. There are five other tapestries from this edition in other American institutions: the month of 'September' at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, 'August' and 'October' in the Metropolitan Museum of Art at New Work and the months of 'February' and 'July' at the Art Institute of Chicago. The divinities, the personification and the cartoons associated with the month of April are the same as in the Doria Pamphilij edition. However there is a significant difference that distinguishes the Doria Pamphilij edition. The set belonging to the Doria Pamphilij family is the only edition with a round cartouche and a band decorated with cherubs and crosses. The other two editions have more oval medallions and the band surrounding the central cartouche contains all twelve signs of the zodiac alternating with twelve pairs of female figures with fluttering drapery, holding hourglasses to impersonate the passage of time.
In the center is the zodiac month symbol representing the tapestry along with an inscription of the month. Unlike the blue ground of the Doria Pamphilij edition, in the other two editions the color of the ground changes from a very light blue to a deep blue with stars to symbolize the hours of daylight expected in the particular months and the bands also have a subtle beige exterior border with spaced numbers depicting the hours of the day and an inner border divided into red and black lines indicating the passage of time. The same is true of the second edition, the only known version of this series without the four corner figures and landscapes, which has only one surviving example found in April in the Rijksmuseum. The coarser drawing of the ivy-covered tree trunks and missing corner figures suggest that the original comic was adapted by a less experienced painter in the workshop that produced this edition.
In the past, the design of this series was attributed to Bernard van Orley.
However, further study has revealed a marked Italian Renaissance influence in van Orley's works and has shifted the attribution to an artist from van Orley's circle. The affinity with the works of the Flemish artist and the high quality of the weaving attribute it to a skilled Brussels workshop, even in the absence of a Brussels brand. The other two known editions of this series also do not have the Brussels marks in their borders, indicating that all three series were produced before 1528, when the weaving of the Brussels mark in every tapestry produced became mandatory.
The edition of Doria Pamphilij was initially considered the "editio princeps", mostly due to the status and fame of their owner. But a subsequent phase of study has revealed that the complex iconography for the oval medallion of Cardinal Erard de la Marck has more symbolism and are the original commission. It is very probable that Doria ordered them for a particular part of his palazzo which resulted in a slight difference in the size of the two editions and probably resulted in the oval medallion being changed to a single turn and the cherub heads replacing the zodiac signs and women with hourglasses. The series was passed on to Andrea Dora Pamphilij's descendants and they were registered in different places; this offered tapestry was auctioned off by the family in 1967. Three tapestries from the set, comprising the months of January, February and August, are owned by Prince Filippo Doria Pamphilij and are displayed in the Villa del Principe (Palazzo di Andrea Doria) in Genoa. The month of October is in Palazzo Pallavicini in Genoa and two more are exhibited in the Villa Spalletti Trivella, a hotel in Rome. The month 'December' in this series was sold at Christies, London, 15 November 2001, lot 250. All six of these tapestries have the characteristic round bands with a cherub's head on a pale blue ground, as opposed to all the signs of the zodiac, found on other series.
