Spring has officially sprung! In 2024, the vernal equinox fell on the 20th of March. This event marks the official start of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, so naturally, we’ve been considering all the ways the four seasons have influenced the arts.
After some careful musing, here are the most interesting, influential, or just plain cool representations of the four seasons we could find throughout the ages, across all the arts.
PHOTOGRAPHY & PRINT - WENDY RED STAR
Wendy Red Star is a mixed-media artist known for her intersectional approach to exploring feminism and her Apsáalooke identity. To highlight experiences or works specific to Crow women online, she has created the hashtag #ApsaalookeFeminist. Her notable series The Four Seasons (2021), explores the complicated relationship between indigenous identity and Western colonial art history. Her series critiques stereotypical, romanticised portrayals of Native Americans in art and popular culture.
The Four Season (2021), Wendy Red Star. © Wendy Red Star.
In four seasonally themed photographic prints, Red Star poses in front of scenic dioramas, surrounded by inflatable animals. The vivid and striking compositions confront the viewer, causing them to examine what it means to authentically portray Native American subjects in art.
LITERATURE - ALI SMITH
Scottish author Ali Smith pushed the boundaries of modern publishing with her literary endeavour to produce a series of books, one for each season. The resulting Seasonal Quartet is a series of standalone novels that all deal with the passing of time, and the endless cycle of the seasons.
Autumn (2016), Winter (2017, Spring, (2019) and Summer (2020) by Ali Smith
Though rooted in the contemporary political and social climate of the UK, Smith’s novels have international appeal and exhibit influences from a variety of artistic disciplines . Smith herself has written on seasonal aspects of Hockney, Virgil and T.S. Eliot, if you fancy falling further down the seasonal literary rabbit hole.
VIDEO - DAVID HOCKNEY
David Hockney is perhaps best known for his unequivocally Summery (or ‘aestival’, if you want a good Scrabble word) paintings such as The Splash and A Bigger Splash depicting swimming pool scenes that entice the audience to dive in. Viewers of his more recent video installation, The Four Seasons, feel an equally inviting tug. Hockney explores the changing scenery of Woldgate woods across four large screens, creating an immersive and enthralling experience of rural Yorkshire between 2010 and 2011.
FILM - ÉRIC ROHMER
A significant figure in French cinema, Éric Rohmer was known for his distinctive style and insightful explorations of human relationships. He crafted films characterised by their naturalistic dialogue, nuanced characters, and contemplative storytelling.
Top Left: A Tale of Springtime (1990), Dir. Éric Rohmer. Top Right: A Tale of Summer (1996), Dir. Éric Rohmer. Bottom Right: A Tale of Autumn (1998), Dir. Éric Rohmer. Bottom Right: A Tale of Winter (1992), Dir. Éric Rohmer. Images courtesy of Janus Films.
Four of these films - A Tale of Winter, A Tale of Springtime, A Tale of Summer, and A Tale of Autumn - form a series called Tales of the Four Seasons. The Four Seasons is the director’s third series of films, following Six Moral Tales (1963–72) and Comedies and Proverbs (1981–87). Unlike these previous projects, Rohmer strove to make the Seasons series all about differences and contrasts, rather than thematic similarities. The quartet of standalone stories each have their own insights into the highs and lows of love, complicated friendships and human foibles.
MUSIC & POETRY - ANTONIO VIVALDI
Born in Venice in 1678, Antonio Vivaldi is a classical composer, particularly noted for his expressive and rhythmic compositions. His most famous works, collectively known as The Four Seasons, remain some of the most popular classical pieces played today.
Unusually, Vivaldi also published poems - which he may have written himself, though this is unconfirmed - alongside his compositions. Each poem elucidates the particulars of the season the concertos were intended to represent. Since it is - officially - the season, here is an excerpt from the Primavera poem, translated from the original Italian:
Festive Spring has arrived,
The birds salute it with their happy song.
And the brooks, caressed by little Zephyrs,
Flow with a sweet murmur.
The sky is covered with a black mantle,
And thunder, and lightning, announce a storm.
When they are silent, the birds
Return to sing their lovely song.
PAINTING - GIUSEPPE ARCIMBOLDO
Given the striking weirdness of his paintings, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Guiseppe Arcimboldo was a contemporary of surrealists such as René Magritte or Salvador Dalí. In fact, Arcimboldo was a 16th century painter, best known for his portraits of figures composed of other things. These included a librarian made up of books, an admiral constituted of fish, and perhaps most famously, the four seasons made of flowers, fruits and vegetables.
The Louvre Series of the Four Seasons by Guiseppe Arcimboldo, 1573. Top Left: Winter; Top Right: Spring; Bottom Left: Summer; Bottom Right: Autumn.
ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT - UNKNOWN ARTIST
Depictions of the four seasons feature heavily in manuscripts throughout the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and beyond. They often feature in astrology and astronomy texts, but the imagery references farming practices (hydroponic farming and temperature-controlled trucks hadn’t been invented yet, so there were no out-of-season strawberries back then, you just had to keep an eye on the weather).
23r-33v Jahreslauf und Kalenderordnung, Tübinger Hausbuch (15th Century), Md 2, University Library, University of Tübingen
In this particular manuscript, a 15th century German almanack, the four seasons illumination forms just one plate, tucked among calendars, illustrations of the zodiac, and explanations regarding the four humours. Aspiring students of 15th century Astronomy and Geomancy - the interpretation of geographic features - can view the fully digitised manuscript here.
For inhabitants of the mid-latitudes, the four seasons are all around us and always have been. They affect our mood and our behaviour. They affect our relationships and they absolutely influence the arts.
So, as we leap into a new season, consider how seasonal art may have influenced you. What are your favourite artworks inspired by the seasons?
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