Activity 1

Successive outbreaks of the Black Death during the fourteenth century powerfully affected the minds of Europeans. As more and more died from the seemingly incurable disease, many people grew convinced that God was punishing humanity for its sins. Some turned to religious frenzy, including self-flagellation, in hope of appeasing God's wrath. Many others became fascinated with graphic images of death, including open tombs and rotting corpses. Consider, for example, the Triumph of Death, completed around 1350 by the Italian artist Francesco Traini. Notice the people who happen upon the open coffins: to what social class do you think they belong? The Web image of the painting is small, but try to see what sort of person is laid out in the coffins: what is the significance of that person? What do you think those who viewed this painting were to learn from it? One of the most notable artistic motifs to develop during this period was The Dance of Death. The Dance typically takes the form of a series of images in which skeletons or decayed corpses whirl all manner of people off to the grave. The earliest complete Dance of Death dates from 1424. Take a virtual tour of the Paris Danse Macabre, using the links provided to advance from image to image. Now compare this series with one composed later by the German artist, Hans Holbein the Younger. Although Holbein completed his version during the 1530s, the sequence involves imagery and conveys ideas that audiences of the Paris Danse Macabre would have recognized. Visit Hans Holbein's Dance of Death and take a look at the list of images included in the sequence; examine several of the images. How is Death represented in these two dances? How do they resemble and differ from each other? Who are Death's victims? Does Death take them all in the same way? What reactions do the victims have to the arrival of Death? What role does God and the promise of salvation play in the Dance of Death? Based on your observations of the images, what conclusions can you draw about what late-medieval Europeans thought was happening to them?

Activity 2

During fourteenth century in Italy, Western art began to take its epochal turn toward the Renaissance. A painter named Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), represented the human form and its relationship to the space it occupies in ways artists had not since the Greco-Roman era. Before considering Giotto's own work, take a look at examples of the art of two of his most important forebears: examine the Ruccellai Madonna (c.1285) by Duccio, and the Madonna in Majesty (1285-86) by Cimabue. How does the human form appear in these paintings? What sort of space do they occupy? What kinds of colors do the artists use? Now take a look at Giotto's Ognissanti Madonna. How does Giotto's panting resemble and differ from those of Duccio and Cimabue? How does Giotto envision the human form? What kinds of colors does he use to represent it? Finally, examine one of the Giotto's most famous works, the Lamentation, part of a Fresco series he painted in the Arena chapel at Padua. How does this painting differ from other medieval images you have seen? How does Giotto represent the experience of mourning for the crucified Christ? Why do you think that Giotto's work is regarded as marking a transition between the Middle Ages and Renaissance?