Context

I created this work for an Italian Studies class earlier this semester.  It talks about the struggles and criticism that artists and writers faced in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.  This essay conveys my ability to understand and analysis my interpretation of the works I read, and use it to create an essay. The topic of this essay is relevant to my passions for traveling, art and the classics.  I enjoyed writing this essay because I was fascinated by what I was writing about.  I chose this essay to display due to the fact that it reflects not only my academic achievements but also my love for Italy’s artists and writers of this time.  This ties in with my personal life because all the art works that I talk about I have seen in museums.

The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries brought rise to several masterpieces of art and literature.  The early renaissance began with the destruction and turmoil of the Black Death, the plague that nearly wiped out Europe.  This tragedy inspired many artists such as Duccio, Giotto, and Lorenzetti, and literary geniuses like Petrarch, Dante, and Boccaccio. These masters of the arts gave voice to many forms of storytelling that we cherish to this day.  Duccio and Giotto focused their paintings on  religious works which were very common at this time.  However, Lorenzetti painted a more secular view depicting everyday life and government, something that was considered very controversial. Poets like Dante and Petrarch reacted to the corruption that power and money brought. Their works showed just how much resentment they held towards people that transformed the once magnificent Florence into a war zone. Boccaccio on the other hand was horrified by the Bubonic Plague and wrote a comedy complete with dark humour.

A popular theme in art in the early renaissance was the decent of the “Divine” to a more human like space by showing human emotions and expressions like suffering and love. This was the technique the artists used to tell stories through their paintings.  Duccio’s Maestà in the Muso Dell’Opera nella Duamo Siena is one of the most transparent examples of storytelling in art at this time. It is a magnificent double sided pice of work that represents a throne.  On the front there is  the image of the Madonna and child, and surrounding are scenes of Christ’s childhood and Mary’s life. On the back Duccio painted the Passions of Christ resembling a modern day storyboard.  It is a very beautiful representation of how the artist viewed Mary and Jesus. Painting them on a throne surrounded by angles he is portraying them as divine, but when you look at the scenes of Mary’s life, Jesus’ childhood and the Passions of Christ, Duccio is representing just how human Jesus really was.

Another humanist view is given to us by Giotto, who in many of his works references Greek and Roman mythology.  His Madonna and Child depicts a very human Mary and Jesus, something that people of the fourteenth century could relate to.  The human rendition of the Holy Family carried over into most of Giotto’s works.  In the scenes from “The Life of Jesus” in the Chapel in Padua all the images portray Mary and Jesus in a contemporary setting. By illustrating them in this light people viewing these masterpieces were able to understand that even though Jesus lived many centuries ago he is still relevant. The images fill an entire room in the chapel and tell the story of  the life of Joachim, Mary, and Jesus. Furthermore, Giotto, is a master of illustrating human emotions.  In the scene of Jesus’ birth and death there seams to be a knowing between Mary and Jesus, an understanding of what is to come and why it must happen.  This was very controversial to the church because these works humanized Jesus, someone who before this time was always shown in his divinity. Giotto’s “Last Judgment” shows the viewer just how dramatic and intense his paintings are. It is an entire wall with Jesus as the main focal point sitting on a throne in front of a gold backdrop.  This is one of the few works by Giotto where Christ appears more divine than human; he is surrounded by the apostles and above him are the angles, below we can see the people who are damed and saved. The image is telling the story of what Giotto believes will happen on Judgement day. 

In the early renaissance it was very unusual of secular art to play such an important role in the community.  Despite this opinion, Lorenzetti’s The Allegory of Good and Bad Government became a vital pice of work.  It was featured in City Hall to remind authorities of the importance of doing their jobs well and justly.  It effectively tells the story of what happens with good and bad government, thus helping to word off corruption.

Besides the wealth and art that came out of the fourteenth century the written word contributed just as much. Similar to the artist the authors of this time we humanists referencing the Classical Greek and Roman texts, concepts and heroes as well as Christian Sources.  Petrarch used his knowledge of the classical arts and mythology to create the sonnet, which is an essential form of poetic storytelling.  His life began in exile in Avignon. In his writing he created a discourse with the classical orators such as Cicero, acknowledging him as a forbearer of much humanist writing. However unlike many of his Florentine contemporaries, Petrarch travelled throughout his life, thus informing his work with a more nuanced world view.

Like Petrarch, Dante also personally experienced the corruption of the Florentine government which influenced his later writings. His earliest achievement, Vita Nuova is an autobiographical text which explores his  own open ended story of courtly love. His love interest Beatrice, is featured as a beacon of light who represents virtue and youth.  The book reflects the circle of life with its themes illustrating Dante’s life from infancy, adolescence, adulthood, old age and rebirth in new love. But perhaps his most infamous and reactionary accomplishment is The Divine Comedy. This three part masterpiece conicals Dante’s guided journey of the afterlife. Dante is accompanied by Virgil on a journey through Purgatorio, Paradiso, and Inferno where he sees the seven layers of Hell and the popes of his time that had been damned.  The comedy criticizes the corruption of the government and people in power at this time.

The Divine Comedy made a permanent mark as a main stay of renascence literature and figures Dante as a central voice of his time.  Its serious and damning nature prompted responses such as Boccaccio’s The Decameron—the antidote to The Divine Comedy. Boccaccio, unlike his contemporaries , was not influenced by the corruption in government, but rather the turmoil and fear that accompanied the Black Plague.  The Decameron is a collection of 100 stories told in a framework, he writes about seven woman and three men that flee the black death and run away to a country home.  The stories that these characters tell are full of love, lust, and dark hummer, which placed women in an undignified light. During this period women were not supposed to be seen in way that is improper, nonetheless Boccaccio thought it would make for a good story which it inevitably did.

The early renascence was a time where many masters of the arts branched away from tradition in the interest of telling stories though their works.  Not only did artists, and poets use their art form to tell stories, but troubadours would travel around singing songs and telling poems usually about courtly love.  Architecture and preaching coincidentally were also forms storytelling, St. Frances and the Dominicans would travel around telling stories about how the church has become corrupt and how to rebuild it. The purpose several of these humanists was to inform, inspire religious fervour, and to remind, government officials of effects of corruption documented in Lorenzetti’s Allegory of Good and Bad Government.  Furthermore, to warn people of what would happen if they led terrible lives, as depicted in frescoes of hell as well as Dante’s Inferno.  There seamed to be forms of resistance to current status quo,  and there began to be works of art and literature that people could understand.  Authors were now writing in the vernacular instead of Latin and artists were portraying their subjects in a more human manor.  With all these new ideas of the way we should view these art forms, the arts were reborn, into a new era, we call the renascence.