St. Angela and the Ursulines

(*This is a later painting done of Saint Angela the founder of the Ursulines, but it is connected to an official Ursuline website, so I figured since it is their preferred choice it would be appropriate.)

In class, we mentioned the Franciscans today, an order for the men to join to move toward a more emotive relationship with God and Jesus. These orders offered more personal connections with God. The Franciscans also followed tradition by living simply within the poverty that reflected Jesus’s own life (CP 25). Men also could choose from other orders, including the Dominican order. Yet for women choices were more limited, either to the sisters orders, or the tertiaries of the Franciscans and Dominicans. These female offshoots of traditional male orders did not reflect the male orders completely because these orders still forced women to live in a cloister away from society. By living in a cloister, these women could not create the same relationship with the Lord that the men of their orders could.

Angela Merici broke away from tradition and created her own teaching order, named the Ursulines, after their patron saint of Ursula (CP 33). The reason Angela’s order was so special centered on her belief that there should not be any required vows or claustration. Claustration is the forced acceptance to live away from society, like in a cloister. For the Ursulines to be allowed to move through society saw a break with tradition and linked them more closely with the traveling Mendicants (CP 25). For Angela these women needed to learn the word of God, but could say at their homes and show their piety through a celibate lifestyle (St. Angela). Sadly, after Angela’s death the church forced the Ursulines to accept claustration (CP 33). This period, the mid-sixteenth century, offered very little education to most women so what Angela accomplished in teaching young women about God showed her persistence in her message.

The other site that I used to find some of my information is here:

http://stamericigh.com/index.cfm?load=page&page=152

-Jenn Kervian

Giotto's Flight into Egypt

     Previous to Giotto's naturalist paintings religious art was constructed in the Byzantine style, which incorporated two-dimentional figures with excessive use of color and pattern. Giotto's work, such as the  1304 fresco, Flight to Egypt, differed from the previous Byzantine style by incorporating three dimensional figures, drawn to scale, and more representative of the human figure. The Flight to Egypt, is based on the biblical passage Matthew 2:13-2:15, 19-20, in which an angel tells Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to avoid the Slaughter of Innocents by King Herod.

     Similar to the included 14th century Byzantine fresco painting of Procession, from the Church of the Peribleptos in Mistra, Greece, the Flight From Egypt, incorporates vibrant use of color and the distinctive golden hallows around the head of the holy family and

their accompanying angel. This demonstrates how Giotto's fresco and painting style represents a transition from the contemporary Byzantine style into the naturalist movement which would last for the remainder of the millennia.

http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/flightIntoEgypt.html
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fwbz/hd_fwbz.htm

Remnants of the pre-modern World in SGF

Today is Labor Day and that means my annual trip to the Springfield Labor Day parade. This is a bit of  Americana, which I try to explain to my children as historically relevant, but mostly they just like the gobstoppers and tootsie rolls. On a day in which I sleep in, workers from all across SGF take to the parade and group themselves with signs, trucks, bikes, and heavy machinery to demonstrate their community and ties to a union.  What is my link to this class? We looked briefly at the concept of a guild. Remember that Burckhardt said that everyone was free in the Renaissance and man had no ties. However, we (and Brucker) critiqued that notion by suggesting that guilds continued to function in Italy, even during the Renaissance. We learned on Friday that the guilds of Florence, especially the cloth guild and the wool guild, were major patrons of art. Guilds played central roles in town governance, kept the economy stable, helped established a product, and provided important social networks and health benefits, as Zophy pointed out.

Here, in the photo above, the heavy laborers and their families march to show solidarity. Not only do they share health benefits but they demonstrate a link to a common political ideology. How would this have been similar in the historical past? One thing is that when I ask students who in their family is a member of the working class--rather than a professional class--usually smaller number of students raise their hands. 

Historical Connections

As we briefly went over the subject of the Black Death in class, my mind couldn't help but to think of one of Poe's famous works, "The Masque of the Red Death" and how much symbolism is conveyed about the past within its story.  In it, a mysterious figure interrupts the merriment of a masquerade, making his rounds throughout the different colored rooms until finally ending up inside a room shrouded in black, where he murders Prospero and the rest of the partygoers.  To me, this "Red Death" in fact symbolizes the Bubonic Plague, or Black Death, as it is known as today.  We talked about how this unforgiving disease took the lives of both the rich and the poor, the clergy and the peasants.  No one was truly safe from the clutches of death, as also seen in Poe's story.  Each of the rooms in Prospero's abbey are decorated by a different color--blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet.  The differing hues of each room represent different walks of life, such as the peasantry, merchants, artisans, clergy, noblemen, etc.  All varying levels of society, and yet all perished in the end.  I think it is quite interesting to see how much the past affects several aspects of future society, be it through text, word of mouth, art, or other things.  

Peasant Bruegel

Earlier in class, Tanner and I talked about how Burckhardt seemed to overlook the peasant class in his analysis of the renaissance. Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel, on the other hand, saw the peasant class as more than just a collective mob of discontent. He saw them instead as unique individuals, each one living out a different aspect of the collective human experience.

Self Portrait

Sometimes referred to as "Peasant Bruegel" or "Bruegel the Peasant", Bruegel would dress up and live as a peasant for extended periods of time in order to better get an understanding of the peasant lifestyle. It is obvious that his paintings were inspired by this first hand experience. The majority of Bruegel's paintings featured some aspect of normal peasant life like the wedding shown below. He also painted many religious works and even dabbled in political satire.His unique artistic style earned him the title of "Master" within the painters guild at Antwerp.

The Peasant Wedding

Danza Macabra

In class we briefly mentioned paintings called "The Dance of Death" which were inspired by the black plague. While not much else was said, the paintings caught my eye and I decided to do some more research on them. 

This photo shows that death has no limitations. The bubonic plague killed an estimated amount of 25 million people in the middle ages. From peasants, clergy men, royalty, bishops, to monks, the "black death" succumbed everyone in its path, like in the photo above where it shows many different social classes, and even a child being lead to dead by the hand. Many other types of "Dance of Death" paintings came about in the Renaissance era, including the photo below, which I found very interesting.

This painting is called "Death and the Maiden" by Hans Baldung. The painting also plays off the "Dance of Death" concept that death shows no mercy.

Christine de Pizan

Throughout history women have struggled with their limited roles in a male – dominated society, more often than not seen as a man’s property. It wasn’t until the later Medieval Era where Christine de Pizan (1365 - 1430) challenged this ideology of “stereotypical’ gender roles, becoming the first writer of feminist literature.

            Privileged as a child sent to study in Paris in the abbey at Poissy (a result of her father becoming an astrologer to France’s King Henry V).  She was very fortunate to have both a supportive father and husband that allowed her to continue her education. It wasn’t until the death of these two men where her literature began to take off. After becoming what we would call a single mother she needed a source of income, so she began giving out her literature to members of the court. They would send her money in return and later commissioning her for more work, which eventually got her family out of debt.  She proved what most men at the time considered impossible, a woman with the ability to earn a living and support her family.

            One of her more famous feminist literature pieces is called The Book of the City of Ladies. Divided into three sections Christine shows women who ruled in history, women who demonstrated and kept family values, and women who were martyrs for their faith. The lists of accomplishments in the book depicted women as equals to men.  Her book gave these extraordinary women  ‘a place to be safe from the attacks of men’ (Lloyd).  One of her final pieces of literature was her poem paying tribute to Joan of Arc entitled “Ditie de Jeahanne d’Arc” (The Poem of Joan of Arc).

Christine de Pazin was one for the first feminists of the medieval era, her literature and her life depicted her passion for breaking the set gender roles that have been in place for centuries. 

Resources: 

http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/chrisdp.html 

http://www.poemhunter.com/christine-de-pizan/biography/

Black Plague

I chose this image of the black plague because the art work of this painting is quite detailed. The first thing we notice is the priest and the flag with the skull and cross on it. To me this represents death and maybe even the importance of afterlife. The way the priest is presented shows his importance to the people and their hope for a cure. By the dead man who is being carried away we see the mother covering her mouth trying to reach for her child showing the people's fear of catching the disease. We could also see how the child's face appears innocent as if its unaware about the life and death around him.

In class, we spoke about the common death occurrence, here in this painting we can see the dead bodies just laying in the middle of the streets. With the high numbers of people being infected and dying we see the dead just left to rot because of the lack of space for a proper burial.As we look past the priests, the infected people, and the dead, we notice the empty background. I wonder why the artist left the background so empty with a lot of standing buildings... what are your guys thought about that?