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?

Dance of the Death Artwork

In class we briefly discussed the Dance of the Death Artwork, so I did some further research on the subject. These portraits came about, because of the black plague. People were forced to think about their impending death and how short life really is. These thoughts were expressed in their poetry, music and visual arts. In The Dance of the Death Artwork the living are arranged in order of their rank in society.

In this portrait a clergy member is being taken to death, representing how no one can escape death grasp.  Escorting them to their death is a skeleton, or sometimes shown as a rotten corpse, most of the time they are shown carrying spears, bows and arrows or graveyard tools. However, they are often pictured as carrying musical instruments, which they would play, while dancing around, to mock the living. The living are shown full of despair and begging for mercy. However, death shows them no mercy, taking its victims regardless their social status, sex or age.

Trumph of Death

The Black Death was both a confusing and terrifying time during the years of 1347 through 1350.  Waves of pestilence consumed Europe and death seemed inevitable for those in its path.  Although the Renaissance is generally regarded for its remarkable accomplishments and intellectual advancements; the Black Death cannot be shoved aside.  Such disaster caused for a breakdown in society,  and a mass collection of city ordinances in order to try and save communities from disease. The onset of plague also caused mass panic which lead to accounts of violence and the desertion of entire areas.

 The oil painting by Peter Bruegel named the Triumph of Death, painted in 1562 portrays the destruction caused by the pestilence. In the picture, the artist presents mass death, chaos, and a collapse in societal workings.  In the background the church is represented which can assume that people of this time period believed the destruction to be caused or punishable by god.  Even further in the background lies a barren wasteland in which everything has been destroyed.  This provides a look at the decimation of an entire area once it was consumed by pestilence.

Color Symbolism

In class, we discussed the myth that the Renaissance was colored in browns and overall neutral tones, in regards to the clothing that people wore. However, the opposite is true. Color played a vital role in Renaissance culture, because what you wore symbolized how you felt and your status in society. Royalty and upper class, for example wore rich reds and purples to showcase their wealth and authority. The picture below depicts princess Elizabeth Tudor in all her grander. Notice that she is colored head to toe in red and ornamented in jewels- another obvious indicator of wealth.

Portrait of Elizabeth I as a Princess
c. 1546, attributed to William Scrots

Some color symbolism from the Renaissance is still used in society today. When we go to funerals, we wear black. Why? Because it is tradition. The same is true for why we wear certain clothing to formal events, such as a tuxedo on your wedding day, or formal blacks for a concert. We do  this out of tradition. In the Renaissance, black was a color associated with mourning, seriousness and sophistication. 

Here is a key to other color symbols in the Renaissance

Orange-  used my middle to lower class citizens to mimic the upper classes reds

Yellow- first worn by wealthy men and merchants, but quickly became color to wear for prostitutes 

Green- youth, chastity, love and joy (remember the Arnolfini portrait we looked at?)

Blue- marriageable women, servitude, jealousy (turquoise)  

Browns- religious modesty, poverty 

White- purity for women and chastity for men, symbolic of humanities in universities