Chapter 5 - 10

10 Art History

listen to a discussion in an art history class. fill in the diagram with the information that you hear.

W: In the 14th century, the populations of Europe and Asia were profoundly affected by the Black Death, which was a disease that killed millions of people.

But of course, have you all sit in an art history class, so I’m going to talk about its, the uh, the Black Death’s effect on art.

whereas before this time, art had been more unrealistic, the art after the horror of the Black Death reflected a… a new attention to the reality of life, no doubt brought on by the amount of tragedy the people had witnessed.

Um, yes, Robert?

M: You, Uh, just an observation, but you would think the people at that time would want to escape the sad reality of the Black Death in their art and culture.

W: Well, with the Black Death, the entire population of Europe dropped by, like, a third.

One out of every three people died from this sickness… hard to believe.

And the ones that lived, well, these people, um, were either feeling guilty that they had survived, or maybe they just thought about what death meant more often.

They became religious, and they were obsessed with the debt they had seen.

Actually, that’s one of the hallmarks of art immediately following the Black Death.

It has… a morbid quality that just hadn’t been seen before.

Never before was an entire generation of artists so completely captured by death and tragedy.

M: What do you mean? What was so morbid about their work?

W: Well, to start out with, a lot of the colors were extremely somber.

Black, greens, and occasionally dark blues were the overriding colors, and even normally bright colors like yellow, when they were used−which was rarely−were toned down and made more… oh, gloomy, I guess.

Second, most artists included representations of death or death scenes in their art.

A really famous artist at the time, Francesca Traini, created a painting called The Triumph of Death where three coffins are being viewed by a group of people.

Inside our bodies that are decaying is that people look on.

In another corner, a “grim reaper” sort of character− a witch with a big blade used to kill her victims − is overtaking people in another group… people who are… who are just going about their daily lives.

The painting is of course reminiscent of the Black Death, and it shows how each member of society was affected by it.

It even appeals to the emotions, evoking the depth of sorrow because the Black Death so unexpectedly killed so many.

Now let’s move on to Giotto, another Italian artist, who, who tried to make things appear as realistic as possible.

So realism can be understood as the third effect at the Black Death on art.

Giotto showed similar themes as other artists of the day − death and dying, of course−but he added this idea of realism… in particular, he showed real emotion on people’s faces, and inner gestures.

This wasn’t really done too much before Giotto.

Anyway, because of this, he is considered to be one of the artistic fathers of the early Renaissance painters.

OK, uh, onwards to the final effect of the Black Death on the art of the day.

An entire new school of art appeared, and it was called “The Art of Dying,” well, when translated into English, anyway.

These works, I should add, had a real purpose.

The paintings and often the woodcuts… you know, when you carve a design into a wooden block and then creating an image by pressing the inked block onto a piece of paper.

Well, anyway, the purpose of these was to show um, hmm… how can I put this?

Well, really, the purpose was to show people how to die well.

M: How to die well? That sounds, uh, kind of strange. I mean how does one die well, anyway? I don’t quite understand what you mean.

W: Well, to understand any type of art, you need to put it into its historical context, and in this case, remember that Christianity was the dominant religion in Europe.

So when I say peace works from The Art of Dying school offered advice on how to die, well, I simply mean that they reflected the church’s outlook on death, and in particular, life after death − and how to get to heaven.

1) How was the lecture organized?

2) Why does the professor discuss the colors in part after the Black Death?

3) Why does the professor mention the church