The Black Death: Culture and Art
Thousands of painters, craftsmen, patrons of the arts perished during the mid 14th century. The heart of the cultural world was torn open. The horrors of the black death pervaded all aspects of Medieval culture and especially art. The effects were lasting, bringing a somber darkness to visual art, literature, and music. The dreadful trauma of this era instigated the imaginations of writers and painters in worrying and unsettling ways for decades to follow. The insecurity of daily survival created a atmosphere of gloom and doom influencing artist to move away from optimistic themes and turn to images of Hell, Satan and the Grim Reaper. Many painters simply gave up art believing that it was hopeless to try and create beauty in a hellish world. |
In the 1300’s, renowned Italian artists such as Giotto painted solid graceful figures, using tranquil pastel tones and a three-dimensional, balanced sense of light and space. A prime example is this panel in Padua’s Arena Chapel, entitled Anne and Joachim, the Virgin Mary’s parents, at the Gate.
However, immediately after the Black Plague of 1348, figures in Italian art began taking on a more wooden, Byzantine quality, seemingly to wipe out the sensitive artistic advances in shape and light made in the 14th century. Yet, art historians such as Millard Meiss argue against the notion that these new batches of artists were simply poorer than their predecessors. The horror and death they saw around them profoundly affected painters such as Duccio (1250-1312), Barna da Siena, Orcagna and Traini. Their world was a colder place. Indeed, they saw friends and contemporaries such as writer Petrarch fall victim to the plague; many who witnessed this dark period in history were left with survivor’s guilt In the eyes of these artists, the Deity was no longer kind but rigid and uncompromising. Death was final, and no one’s prayers could intercede. This new psychologically darker Sienese style of painting comprises the “Black Death theory” of art. |