Exercise 1

Animals played a vivid role in the medieval imagination.  Consider, for example this Romanesque initial V from Bible , the intertwining animal and vegetable forms of which are reminiscent of the fanciful Celtic art of earlier centuries; or this Lion from a Spanish fresco.  Read more about medieval animals and examine some additional examples included on the wed site.  As you do so, consider these questions: in what contexts did animals appear in medieval art? what symbolic meanings did they acquire? what functions did the bestiary serve?

Exercise 2

As you know, many scholars consider Dante's Divine Comedy to be the preeminent literary work of the High Middle Ages, a poem that articulates the medieval world-view in all its complexity while expressing the poet's unique vision.  Arguably the most vivid of the poem's three parts is the Inferno, in which Dante imagines himself traversing Hell under the guidance of Virgil.  Among his other achievements in the poem, Dante envisioned a detailed geography of Hell that continues to provoke the imaginations of visual artists.  Take a look at one interpretation of Dante's Hell rendered by the Italian painter Bartolomeo around 1420; and another painted by Sandro Botticelli about whom you'll read in Chapter 13.  Notice how both artists represent the levels of Hell to which sinners are consigned according to the severity of their sins and of the punishments they will receive.  Now read  Canto V and Canto XXXIII of the Inferno.  Who are the major sinners in these cantos? What were their crimes, and how do their punishments fit their crimes? How does Dante the character respond to them and the stories they tell of themselves?