THE BLACK DEATH

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THE BLACK DEATH
How many valiant men, how many fair ladies,
breakfast with their kinfolk and the same night
supped with their ancestors in the next world!
The condition of the people was pitiable to
behold.
- Giovanni Boccaccio
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THE BLACK DEATH
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THE BLACK DEATH

• REACTIONS
• Charity was dead
• Dementia of despair
• Wrath of God
• Debauchery, materialism, corruption
• FLAGELLANTS
• Jews as scapegoats

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THE BLACK DEATH

• EFFECT ON ART
• preoccupation with death
• Danse Macabre (Dance of Death)

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THE BLACK DEATH

• EFFECT ON ART
• preoccupation with death
• tomb carvings sculpture

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THE BLACK DEATH

• EFFECT ON ART
• preoccupation with death
• paintings

Hieronymous Bosch, Paradise and Hell
Hieronymous Bosch, The Last Judgment
Jan Van Eyck, The Last Judgement
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THE BLACK DEATH

• EFFECT ON ART
• preoccupation with death
• church frescoes

Kermaria Church, France
Jesuits College, Lucerne Switzerland
Trinity Church, Slovenia
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THE BLACK DEATH

• EFFECT ON ART
• preoccupation with death
• literature

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THE BLACK DEATH

• EFFECT ON ART
• themes of debauchery corruption

Boccaccios Decameron (depicted by Botticelli)
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THE BLACK DEATH

• EFFECT ON THOUGHT
• William of Ockham
• God of will
• no logical divine order
• separation of reason and faith