This time of year Dad would glean a few armsful of dry cornstalks that had missed the chopper at corn harvest in the neighboring fields. He would bind them together in sheaves and prop them up at doorposts with bright pumpkins and gourds arrayed around them. Indian corn, in purples, reds, yellows, whites, and blacks, he would hang near them.
So for our snopki we had stalks of American cow-corn grown by American farmers - owner-operators of their farms, and of the farm machinery that lightens the work and vastly increases productivity.
In centuries past, across Europe, the snopki were of wheat or barley straw. At harvest, the peasants walked along in a line, each with a scythe, cutting the wheat or barley. Others would follow behind, binding the stalks into sheaves and standing three or four sheaves upright against each other so that if rain fell it would mostly drain off.
Still, the sheaves had to be dry when brought into the barn. So on a bright, sunny day following a few good drying days, there would take place "bringing in the sheaves."
This is "Chłopiec niosący snop" - "Boy Carrying a Sheaf."
Snop is a sheaf; snopy, sheaves.
Snopek is a little sheaf; snopki, little sheaves.
Aleksander Gierymski painted this in 1893 in a Polish village called Bronowic. Looks like a good dry day, doesn't it? By the shadow I would say it is late morning, which it would have to be for the dew to have burned off. The field is otherwise empty as much as we can see, so maybe they have been doing this for a few days, planning their harvest festival all the while.
Leszek Lubicki maintains a fascinating blog, Obrazowo rzecz ujmując, ("Figuratively Speaking") for his discussions of Polish paintings of late C19 and early C20. Lubicki includes in what I call his Snopek post, his essay on this one painting of Gierymski, a photo of the painting as displayed at the National Museum in Wrocław.
So for our snopki we had stalks of American cow-corn grown by American farmers - owner-operators of their farms, and of the farm machinery that lightens the work and vastly increases productivity.
In centuries past, across Europe, the snopki were of wheat or barley straw. At harvest, the peasants walked along in a line, each with a scythe, cutting the wheat or barley. Others would follow behind, binding the stalks into sheaves and standing three or four sheaves upright against each other so that if rain fell it would mostly drain off.
Still, the sheaves had to be dry when brought into the barn. So on a bright, sunny day following a few good drying days, there would take place "bringing in the sheaves."
This is "Chłopiec niosący snop" - "Boy Carrying a Sheaf."
Snop is a sheaf; snopy, sheaves.
Snopek is a little sheaf; snopki, little sheaves.
Aleksander Gierymski painted this in 1893 in a Polish village called Bronowic. Looks like a good dry day, doesn't it? By the shadow I would say it is late morning, which it would have to be for the dew to have burned off. The field is otherwise empty as much as we can see, so maybe they have been doing this for a few days, planning their harvest festival all the while.
Leszek Lubicki maintains a fascinating blog, Obrazowo rzecz ujmując, ("Figuratively Speaking") for his discussions of Polish paintings of late C19 and early C20. Lubicki includes in what I call his Snopek post, his essay on this one painting of Gierymski, a photo of the painting as displayed at the National Museum in Wrocław.
Notice the bronze of the man with a scythe.
1 comment:
Looks like a very functional choice of a hat!
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