Summer

Hans Wertinger painted Summer around 1525 as part of a series depicting the seasons or months for a secular decorative context, likely a Bavarian patrician or noble household. Wertinger was the leading painter of Landshut in Bavaria, working for the Wittelsbach court and the local aristocracy with both devotional and secular subjects. His seasonal imagery draws on the northern European tradition of labor-of-the-months imagery—peasants performing seasonal tasks in a landscape—while elevating the genre through more carefully observed figure work and landscape. The Summer panel typically shows harvesting or other warm-weather activities, the landscape background providing both seasonal atmosphere and an opportunity for the careful observation of nature that characterized the Danube School painters.

The panel shows Wertinger's characteristic Bavarian court style with detailed landscape and genre elements, combining naturalistic observation with allegorical content.