-
In literature, several writers used __to produce notable works; The __ led to morbid themes and __, whose paintings expressed a new realism that would be developed further
- vernacular__languages
- Black Death
- Giotto
-
I. The Development of Vernacular Literature
- a. 14th century= vernacular literature, esp. Italian
- i. Use of the Tuscan dialect common in Florence ensured its success as the basic modern Italian language
-
Dante
- i. Old Florentine noble family who held high political office in republican Florence; factional conflict led to his exile
- ii. Divine Comedy
- 1. Story of soul’s progression to salvation divided into hell, purgatory, and heaven
- a. Inferno= he is led by Virgil (reason)
- i. At end, Beatrice (revelation) becomes guide to paradise and presents him to St. Bernard(mystical contemplation)à Mary (grace)
-
Petrarch
- i. Florentine whose role in revival of classics made him a seminal figure in the literary Italian Renaissance
- ii. Sonnets; he is one of the greatest European lyric poets
- 1. Inspired by love for Laura
- a. A real woman involved with Petrarch
- iii. Less concerned to sing his lady’s praise than to immortalize his own thoughts, revealing a sense of stronger individuality
-
Boccaccio
- i. Known for prose and used Tuscan dialect
- ii. While working for Bardi banking house, fell in love with Fiammetta, writing prose romances
- iii. Decameron set at time of Black Death
- 1. Stories reflect acceptance of basic Christian values, but presents society from a secular POV
- a. Seducer of women who is the real hero, not the knight, monk, or philosopher
- b. Reflects immediate easygoing, cynical postplague values
- iv. Later work gloomier and more pessimistic
-
Chaucer
- i. Canterbury Tales
- 1. Beauty of expression and clear, forceful language transformed his East Midland dialect into the chief ancestor of the modern English language
- 2. Collection of stories by 29 pilgrims, giving chance to portray entire range of English society
- 3. Characters used to criticize corruption of church
-
Christine de Pizan
- a. Christine de Pizan
- i. One of the extraordinary vernacular writers
- ii. She had good education due to father’s position
- iii. Husband died when she was 25; left little income and three kidsà became writer
- 1. Poems popular, giving her financial security
- iv. Best known for French Prose works written in defense of women
-
Christine de Pizan
The Book of the City of Ladies
- a. Denounced male writers who argued that women needed to be controlled by men because they were prone to evil, unteachable, and easily swayed
- b. With the help of Reason, Righteousness, and Justice, she refutes these attacks
- i. Women not evil, they can learn
- c. Much of work is detailed discussion of women from past and present who distinguished themselves as leaders, warriors, wives, mothers, martyrs
- d. Ends by encouraging women to defend selves against men’s attacks
-
Art and the Black Death: Morbid
Giotto
- i. Painting skills in workshop; most famous works in Padua and Florence
- ii. Transcended his Byzantine school with a new kind of realism, a desire to imitate nature that Renaissance artists identified as basic component of Classical art
- iii. Figures were solid and rounded; placed realistically in relationship to each other and their background, they conveyed 3D depth
- 1. Expressive faces and physically realistic bodies gave sacred figures human qualities with which spectators could identify
-
Black Death made visible impact on art
- i. Wiped out entire guilds of artists
- ii. Survivors not optimistic; more concerned about salvation
- iii. Postplague art began to concentrate on pain and death
- 1. Ars moriendi: art of dying
-
-
The Triumph of Death by Francisco Traini
- a. The Triumph of Death by Francisco Traini
- i. Left: several nobles encounter three coffins containing decomposing bodies
- ii. Right: aristocrats engage in pleasant pursuits but are threatened by Death in form of flying witch
|
|
