Thursday, September 13, 2012

Pondering the Black Death

So, we all know the black death happened. The biggest plague to ever decimate society.

Or something like that.

No one really knows how many people died, which is a problem. Everyone who was around wrote WILD and exaggerated accounts of how many people they buried each day, and how many people died. They did this to make their town seem particularly bad off, and their survival so much important.

Not to mention we have NO idea how many people were actually alive in the 1300s. All we know is that the population had just breached an amount that could be supported by the amount of food produced. 

But the plague was not the only mass death of the 1300s, or at least not the first. The great famine of 1315 killed thousands and starved everyone else so that when the black death hit in 1347 they were so malnourished that they didn't have a good enough immune system to survive.

Which explains why so many people died in the first wave.

About every 5 years or so another wave of plague hit and more and more people died. There were also a series of crop failures and bad weather that were on a more local level that greatly affected populations, but by this time the population had normalized and there weren't too many people to feed in Europe.

The great famine began because in 1314, it never stopped raining, there was no summer, no time to plant crops, no land to plant crops as even mansions were recorded to be under water, and no time for crops to mature. And this was a HUGE problem, because over the last hundred years or so, the population increased so much that people started farming in areas they had never been able to farm before, or that simply were not smart to farm.

So when it rained and rained and rained, and there was a HORRIBLE harvest, many many people starved because there wasn't enough grain, and people who could hunt and hand animals were supplementing the grain shortage with more meat and veggies. Which meant less of those too. Overall there was a HUGE shortage in food. And LOTS of death.

One generation later, the kids are in their 30s, working hard in the fields. Lucky to be alive and have survived the famine, and WAHBAM. PLAGUE.

And not just one, but probably two different kinds of plague. Pneumatic that spread through the air, and Bubonic that spread through fleas and rats. What joy? So this explains why so many people in the prime of their lives who wouldn't normally be suitable to plague die.

Overall, the 1300s were not pleasant.


Wednesday, August 8, 2012

WHOA! Volcanos and Syphilis! Medieval? Yes!

Syphilis, a disease that has long been reported to originate from the new world, along with potatoes and other delights, was discovered in advanced stages on the bodies of medieval people in a grave in east London. Read the full story here: The History Blog: Volcano Caused Mass Deaths in 13th c. London

This is kind of ho hum. It was pretty exciting to believe that when Europeans came to the new world, they brought all those diseases, and wah-bam! Native Americans gave them Syphilis... But, no...


Also in the news, VOLCANO SHUTS OUT SUN, in 13th Century Europe, causing a mass burial of poor starving folks near the same grave.

This is exciting, because as we all know, or should, Europe was hit with a Little Ice age, which begins with a cooling period at this exact time. The 1300s started with bad weather, continued with the great famine, and ended with constant black plague. Along with my favorite horrible rulers, and the best hundred years war to ever happen, in France. Not to mention constant rioting from underfed poor people who couldn't afford to buy the food they were harvesting for their masters.

So now, we have a cause for the biggest cooling trend Europe had seen since the fall of Rome. Very Exciting!

Of course there are questions, like HOLY CRAP thats a big volcano! An ash plume that is big enough to cause a change in the climate of Europe for 600 years is pretty darn big. Where was it? If it killed so many people in Europe how did the people near it fair? Will it happen again?

Plus, if so many people were killed in London from starvation in the 1250s from this event, how many other people died in other large cities? Could burial sites attributed to plague victors, in actuality be volcano victims?

And of course what does this have to do with art? Nothing, but its exciting. And lots of artists probably died. Or at least there was a decline in the production of certain goods do to labor loss. This could explain why they stopped creating Limoges Enamels around this time. But it doesn't explain the increase in Ivory production. Ho-Hum.


Saturday, May 5, 2012

Mashed Potatoes and Noodles

I apologize for not blogging in forever.I guess I thought for some rediculous reason that life would be easier after mid terms and spring break were over. WELL it wasn't. I thought I would have time to blog, or write my thesis, or breathe, well... I didn't. I'm lucky to be alive.

But the semester is over, and I finally have time to write my thesis. But, today I'm cleaning my apartment instead....

And I created a new entree. Because I am a college student. And college students are poor and always hungry. (I also worked out today, go me).

College Mashed Potatoes and Noodles

2/3 cup of potatoe flakes
1 can of condenced noodle soup (off brand works great)

Directions:
Mix together in large bowl. Microwave 3 mins. Caution hot. Eat.


Hope you enjoy,

~C

PS. I have lots of ideas about roman blog posts romeing around my head. Get excited.

Monday, March 12, 2012

MARCH MADNESS

In Art history land, March is the month of midterms. Which is awful, so between setting up art shows, writing my thesis, and staring blankly at the Madonna of the Stairs by Michelangelo, I've... well been crocheting a table cloth.

But medieval people didn't crochet. Crochet is a net-making technique that had been used in Scandinavia for centuries, and was only introduced into western Europe in the late 18th century, and WABOOM, everyone thought it was the cats meow in the twentieth century.

And now, here i am, making a pineapple table cloth.

So what did medieval people do in March? Well, remember march was alot nicer back then due to the wonderful medieval warming period. They grew all sorts of things we wouldn't imagine growing them, like vineyards in england! Who knew? Yeah, they did.

Anyway, the medieval people loved to depict the labors of the months. Why? Because they liked scenes of everyday life. And probably because they could point and ask people why they were standing around in march.

So, because I should be sleeping/studying/doing something productive, I leave you with the month of March from the tres riches heures du duc de Berry!

  Crap. March looked yucky back then too.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Saintly Sunday: St. Thomas a'Becket

So, those of you who actually read Pillars of the Earth and didn't just watch the TV show, know all about St. Thomas. And, essentially, what happened in the book happened in real life. But, for those of you who haven't read one of the best books ever, get to it.  Oprah got this one right. 

So Thomas was a very religious fellow who eventually became the Archbishop of Canterbury. He did some nice plus things there for a while, and then eventually, stirred up a ruckus about Henry II who tried to limit the power of the church, like all rulers who want the power do. Then, Henry, was really pissed at him, so he refused to have his coronation ceremony in Canterbury, where it is supposed to take place. 

Then, Thomas started excommunicating people left and right who pissed him off. And we know how that goes, everyone gets angry. 

So, Henry, whether he meant to or not, sent some knights to Canterbury to deal with Thomas. 

They came unarmed, leaving their arms outside the church, and told Thomas he had to go with them to Henry to answer for what he did. But, Thomas didn’t want to do that, obviously, and said no. The knights got angry, as large brutes do, and ran out for their arms. 

About this time, Thomas and the rest of his churchmen were heading out to start Vespers, their nightly prayers. By the time the Knights got back, they were on the steps leading to the church. 

And now the fun part begins, the knights start hacking at Thomas left and right, injuring other clergymen in the process, and all the while, they keep walking into the church, so by the time they hack at Thomas’s head and his brains spill all over the floor they are in the cathedral. And that’s a BIG No No! The knights ran away, and the monks preyed and prepared the Archbishop’s body for burial. 

Everyone who heard about this was upset, one just doesn’t kill an archbishop in a church. It isn’t done. I mean, you watched Hunchback of Notre Dame right??? Well, do it!!!! 

Anyways, he was seen as a martyr straight away and canonized shortly afterward. He didn’t really do any cool things in his life, and wasn’t too miraculous in his death, but a HUGE cult of St. Thomas developed, which probably escalated him to martyrdom.

This reliquary casket shows three knights stabbing Thomas above an altar while two monks watch on. On the top half of the casket they show his burial preparations.

This one shows about the same image, except Thomas is turned to the viewer and the monks aren’t there. And, well he is being stabbed in the neck too. Which is great.

And there is this one, which is similar to the last except there are four knights and they seem to be dancing a jig while trying to kill him.
These things were VERY popular.  And there are many more.

This one has lost some of the coloring in the figures, but again we’ve got Thomas being slashed at the head by the knights. 

Whats even more interesting is these are all Limoges Enamel pieces, produced in southern France. They were the primer casket creators of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Thomas didn’t die until 1170. So, these things were being made within 100 years of his death, when the memory of his martyrdom was still fresh! Which is kinda strange for medieval saints, it usually takes about 500 years to gain any glory. 

There is also this pleasant manuscript

Thomas is the one behind the altar, but it looks like the friendly monk is going to get some sword action too.

It is also amusing to note that in Chaucer’s Canterbury tales, the pilgrims were in fact traveling to Canterbury to visit Thomas’ shrine. Everyone wanted to see this guy, and I suppose he did do some miracles there every once in a while.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Phillip I and forward thinking marriage

I am reading the Lady, the Knight, and the Priest, which is a book about medieval marriage and it starts out with the most hilarious story of Philip I.

Note: Philip is the grandfather of Louis VIII who was Eleanor of Aquitaine's first husband.

Philip married his first wife, Berthe when they were relatively young. And they were married for a long time, 20 years, and she only produced one son, Louis VI (Abbot Suger's childhood friend). Philip was afraid he wasn't going to have an heir, and all hell would break loose and France would be broken apart (ie: what happened with Eleanor).

So, he decided to put Berthe in a castle in the middle of no where, a castle that technically belonged to her anyway, and essentially forget about her.

Then he decided he would marry Berttrade. But there were a few hitches, the first, Berthe was still alive and he was still married to her, and second, Berttrade was married to his vassal the Duke of Anjou.

Naturally, he married her anyway, and apparently, the only one who cared was the bishop of Chartres.

In the meantime, Philip I was in the middle of planning the first crusade, and when he called his vassals, and bishops, and knights to him, Bishop Chartres didn't show up. This was against every law there ever was, and everyone had a fit! So the bishop went to Rome to hang out with the Pope.

At the time there was a "prepare everyone's souls for the end of days" kinda thing going on with the clergy, so the Pope listened to the Bishop Chartres and his feelings about Philip's concubinage, and such, and they decided to excommunicate Philip.

This was a problem. If Philip, the king of France was excommunicated that means that all of his vassals and everyone else gets excommunicated too. Finally, after years of being married to a married woman while being married to someone else, people started paying attention.

Philip said it didn't matter, he didn't really care, and his sons were legitimate. His marriage was blessed by the bishop of Reims who crowned them.

So, everyone went on for a while, continued to be excommunicated, and Berthe died, Berttrade had three kids, and people started lobbying that the excommunication be removed. But, there was still the hang up that she was married to the Duke of Anjou.

The Duke of Anjou, apparently didn't really care. He was rumored to be quite the skirt chaser, and had four wives before Berttrade. In reality, he was probably the worst person in this situation. But, because he needed some cleansing of his soul, when approached by Bishop Chartres, everything was in line for him to make some startling accusations, and annoy everyone.

By this time Philip was old, and he was starting to worry about the afterlife and hell. The knowledge that he had sinned, or at least that others thought he sinned, weighed heavy on his mind. So, he renounced his relationship to Bertrade publicly, but their children were still legitimate, and they still lived as a married couple, it was only a formality.

The moral of the story is first, having the wife of another wasn't such a big deal back then. No one really took notice until their personal souls were in danger. And even then, it wasn't enough to make Philip think what he was doing was wrong.

Secondly, Bishop Chartres, just wanted to cause problems. He probably had a fight with Philip about something else, and wanted to get him back, and thought this was the best way to do it. And from a modern perspective on medieval times, it certainly sounds like they were doing wrong, but in reality, no one really thought they were.

Could it be that medieval people were more open about marriage than people today?

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Saintly Sunday... or not.

I got up today, with the sole intention of writing a blog all about St. Valentine, only to read on Wikipedia how depressingly uninteresting he is. Or, they are. There are actually 14 st. Valentines, all martyrs who died in Roman times for their "valor" which is what Valentine means. So really, they were a bunch of dudes who no one actually knew their name, and thought they were full of valor, so they called them Valentine.

So interesting.

But, there is always Cupid.

Cupid is the son of Venus and her lover Mars. Venus's husband was actually Vulcan who was deformed and lived in a Volcano, and Venus was rather... self centered and she didn't like that much, but she got along with Mars great, because he was powerful and attractive.

Anyways someone fathered Cupid. And, Cupid was a big trouble maker from the start. He was always making Zeus and Apollo fall in love with people, and they hated him for it, until Cupid fell in love himself...

The story begins with Apollo sleeping with a chick, probably because Cupid made him do it... and they had a beautiful daughter psyche. And she was the Venus on earth, and Venus didn't like that. She got really upset, so she told Cupid to make her fall in love with a beast.

Well, Cupid took pity on her and was like, awe... and didn't make her fall in love with a beast, and instead vowed to marry her.

Psyche's parents (her real ones, not Apollo) heard a rumor that she was going to marry a beast, and so they freaked out and told her to go hang out on the top of a cliff:

And so, Cupid sent a Zephyr to get her, and bring her to his house where she was attended on by mysterious invisible servants and only saw him at night.

Her sisters came and visited her and told her she should look at Cupid, even though he told her not to, to see if he was really and icky monster. And Psyche believed her sisters, because she was scared he was really a monster, and no girl really wants to sleep with a monster.

And so she lit a lamp one night, woke him up with the hot oil, and poked herself with his arrow all in the same moment. And he was like, "Shit Psyche, I told you not to. Now we can never be together. Mother was right."

So he runs away to mommy, and Psyche searches the world for him, asking different gods, until finally she goes to Venus and has to undertake these three ridiculous tasks in which Ants, gods, and cupid himself took pity on her and helped her.

And finally Cupid comes to her and says he loves her to, and begs Zeus to let him marry her in a godly fashion. And Zeus is like, Pha, you make me deal with all of these women and fall in love with them, than I guess its time for you to be miserable. And Venus was like "NOOOOOO! I will not have my son marry a mortal!"
And Zeus said "Ha! I will make her a god then!"

And everyone was happy in the end.

And thus is the story of Cupid and Psyche (Illustrated by a Cassone panel by the Master of the Argonauts).

Oh, And Psyche's sisters through themselves off the cliff thinking that Cupid would marry them instead. They died.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Medieval Courtly Love , YEAH!

To avoid turning this into Renaissance Art and More, I've decided to tell you a little bit about my thesis. (The amount of Ren stuff is because I'm currently taking a class on High Renaissance and couldn't fit anything medieval into my schedule. Your just lucky I'm not blathering on about aesthetics. Ick!)

My thesis is on courtly love Ivories, but, before I tell you about that, I have to talk about courtly love.

Courtly love was one of those things Eleanor did. She was, I suppose the first romanticist, but she wasn't very romantic. What happened was, there were lots of troubadours, or sing-y story tellers who came from Spain. And they told all these amazing wonderful stories about love and all that from the courts down there, where they read Ovid and stuff. (And don't forget there were Harems in Muslim Spain. WOO).

Anyway, Eleanor was really intrigued, and she and all her friends got together and wrote down the rules of Courtly Love, as told by Andreas Capellanus:

1. Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.
2. He who is not jealous cannot love.
3. No one can be bound by a double love.
4. It is well known that love is always increasing or decreasing.
5. That which a lover takes against the will of his beloved has no relish.
6. Boys do not love until they arrive at the age of maturity.
7. When one lover dies, a widowhood of two years is required of the survivor.
8. No one should be deprived of love without the very best reasons.
9. No one can love unless he is impelled by the persuasion of love.
10. love is always a stranger in the home of avarice.

And there are more, 31 to be exact, but to summerize, love is something that happens between too people who are usually not married, they can be, but thats odd. Love is also about terrible pain, awfulness, jealousy, etc. And you can only love one person.

Courtly love is one of those things that happens in secret too, and is usually between two nobles, but Andreas draws the lines particularly in all cases, telling you when you can love a prostitute and why, and why you shouldn't. Mostly because you should never love someone you wouldn't marry if you had the chance, which has to do with social standing.

Anyway, this goes on, and people abide by these rules more or less all over the place, women have lovers, they play chess, etc, etc.

And they have things like this made:
And your first thought should be: "Whoa! What the hell? Is she choking him???"

Yes, well, in courtly love it is required that a lover give whatever their lover wants, including life, freedom, etc. If she wants you to walk on all fours with her riding on your back, you do it.
Ie: Aristotle and Phylis.
Though this refers to a more satirical story about women twisting smart men around their fingers, you get the point. Men have to do whatever women want. And, thats awesome. THAT is chivalric values, wahhhh....

Anyway, back to the casket. There is a lovely troubadour singing while playing an instrament, and a beautiful woman dancing, and EEK a guy with a sword! In my oppinion, this has to do with jealousy. Some people think its about opening the keys to a woman's heart, but I think he is jealous of the fellow who is getting strangled. Fellow with the sword wants the chick, and will prove that he loves her more by defending her or something.

Its all very strange, especially since this casket is the first thing EVER to have stuff like this. At least that we know of. A lot of stuff hasn't survived. People kinda liked copper and gold for other things like money and weapons, more useful than a casket with a couple on it.

Also, secular objects have always been subject to fads, and if they went out of style, people were like BLEH why am I keeping this one thing around, i'll have it redone! It happens.


The rest of the stuff we have from what I call the enamel period of courtly love art, is a bunch of little button type things, some of which have troubadours, dancing ladies, etc.
Or these two embracing. They are really cute, and you might be thinking they are both men, but they aren't. One is a chick.

Though, it is plausible to have a lover of the same sex in a courtly love relationship, because the relationship is never consummated. This is important. The relationship is a purely intellectual and spiritual one. You give each other gifts, write each other poetry, all that jazz, just no sex. NONE. BAD. The repercussions of doing such are as you imagine them. Illegitimate children, divorce, the church doesn't like you anymore, your shunned by society, etc.

One of the puzzlements of Courtly love is how much this was followed. It is hard to say. In stories like Tristan and Isolt, they consummated their relationship, and definitely had a few flings together (before dying without seeing each other of course). But we don't really know what people really did concerning courtly love, there is lots of literature, but nothing concrete. Eleanor never wrote a sex diary. Though if she did, i'm sure it was jucey.

And so, thats courtly love in a nut shell... A very quick and dirty nut shell. (ha ha)

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Da Vinci before Da Vinci

Now, don't get me wrong. Leonardo Da Vinci was awesome! And since he never learned Greek or Latin, he didn't just read stuff and believe it, like most people did in the Renaissance. (I mean, Renaissance should mean people finally getting around to read 2000 year old books.)

But, he wasn't the first to do alot of things.

For one thing, he wasn't the first Italian to work with Oils. Sure he was probably the first to slap it on a wall above a laundry facility (ie Last Super), but plenty of artists, including Botticelli, and everyone up in Venice had discovered oils. Not to mention the north was full of it. They loved the beautiful layering and volumetric forms you can get outta oil. Tempera, that fuzzy stuff? Thats one of the things the Italians tried to hold on forever, but... it was like death. For one, you can't mix the colors on whatever your painting, so you need tiny little strokes of paint... Yuck. Painstaking blah.

Anyway, He wasn't the first jack of all trades either. The artist Francisco di Giorgio did everything! He developed crazy hilltop fortresses, and all kinds of weapon defenses for castles using geometry and math.

And he built this beautiful church! Can anyone say Brunileschi??? Its also so sparse almost Palladian!
And! He did some painting, which was alright.
Isn't that architecture sweet? Reminiscent of the downfall of Roman pagan society as a result of Christianity??? OH YEAH!

And he did sculpture! Look at the raw emotion in this relief!!! Nothing like Da Vinci's shit.
And the anatomy is pretty nice too. Why? Because, FRANCISCO DI GIORGIO WAS THE FIRST GUY TO DRAW THE ViTRUVIAN MAN!!!! Oh, you thought Vitruvian man was a thing thought up by Da Vinci, nope. First, the perfect man is described by this Roman guy Vitruvious (same guy described the founding of Rome, Etruscan Architecture, and fun stuff like that...), Then Di Giorgio was like, HEY i can do that, so he did:
And this, believe it or not, was in a notebook that he GAVE to Leonardo da Vinci!!!! So Leo was like, WHOA hes onto something!!!! And did the Vitruvian man we know today.
And that looks nice. :)

Oh, And you think Ford invented the car, nope. Di Giorgio!
Jack of all trades. His only failing was probably that he liked money, and he lived in Siena, and he didn't really care about painting that much. Which happens. Painting is definetly not the best enterprise for the Renaissance man. Its not a good living. When Da Vinci moves in with the Duke of Milan he gives him a list of all his special skills, and painting was the last of ten. And he said something along the lines of, "if you really want me to, I'll paint you, but I won't promise anything".

Di Giorgio did alot of cool stuff, and he shared it with his contemporaries, they probably had a pretty good meeting of the minds. Especially since da Vinci was designing the weapons, and di Giorgio was designing the defense, so it probably worked out for them both.

Note: Its not that I hate the big three. Da Vinci is awesome, he did some crazy pants stuff, but HE isn't the Renaissance. There are plenty of other characters running around too. If you wanna get all conspiracy crazed, go ahead.  But, they weren't the only people around, and they weren't the only people patrons hired, or artists studied, or who ran workshops (Rafael was the only one to run a huge workshop, Leo moved around alot, and Michelangelo wanted to be alone...). And in reality, da Vinci and Michelangelo between them created a body of work the size of my thumb nail compared to other artists, albeit there works are singularly wonderful, and they were some of the most well known artists around the world today, but it wasn't always like that.

They used to be obscure artists too, known by only a handful of works and what Vasari chose to write about them. Who knows, maybe back then, di Giorgio was more popular, because people would spend more on a hilltop fortress than a turret cannon that fires at a 360 angle.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Michelangelo long before Michelangelo

I have to credit most of the knowledge in this post to my Italian Ren professor, Dr. Medicus, who lectured on Federighi yesterday with some very brilliant ideas.

First I must begin with an introduction to Italy, c. 1500. They thought that the millennium and a half, meant the end of days, and that the anti Christ walked the earth. And he might've, the Borgia was the pope at the time... And the only good thing he ever did was get rid of Savanerola.... (A character for another day)

Anyway, They thought the world was going to end, artists like Botticelli were going nutzoid, and people were depicting hell, and all its little places, recently talked about by Dante. What a joyous time to live in! And we think of this was the high point of the Renaissance... Phooy.

So, there was this artist named Luca Signorelli, and he painted lots of naked dudes, and naked dudes that might have been girls if you had never seen a girl before:



And this wasn't normal. Generally Renaissance art doesn't have a bunch of nakedness. And if it does, it gets covered up like Michelangelo last judgement, where everybody used to be naked, but no longer is.

But, does this look familiar? Yes, Michelangelo loved naked dudes, and he painted lots of them, and quite a few of them look like these ones...

And we continue to Federighi. He was a sculptor that did all kinds of stuff that no one looks at. Like this bench, with its two arms that are reclining naked figures.
Which kinda reminds everyone of this:
And this:
Which reminds people of this, even though its a man... but Michelangelo didn't know much about the differences in male and female anatomy...
And then, Federigh did this. Which is crazy pants.
I mean come on, there are dragons eating turtles heads, thats awesome! But the important thing is the figures, which look alot like this: 
Michelangelo's bound slave. 
These are all aspects of michelangelo that we art historians think are THE SHIT. But, they weren't thought up by Michelangelo. He obviously saw these other things, and was like WHOA! ME LIKE! And, so he recreated them on a bigger and better scale, like GIGANTIC. 

So, when people talk about the big three. Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Rafael, you've gotta remember that they weren't the first to do these things, they were inspired, and before 1500 when the big three get going, there was a lot of crazy awesome shit going down all over Italy, and in the North too! 

:D Tomorrow, I'll tell you why Da Vinci is only half as awesome as you think he is. Ventruvian man, Shmroovian Man.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Nastagio degli Onesti

The story of Nastagio degli Onesti is a fictional tale written by Boccaccio in the 1300s and was painted by Botticelli in the late 1400s to commemorate the second (and hastely planned) marriage of Gionnozzo Pucci and Lucretza Bini.

The story goes as such, Nastagio was a bachelor. A rich bachelor because his father and uncle both died and left him everything. So he naturally, was a play boy. He fell in love with an ice queen, who refused all of his advances. He gave her lots of gifts, attention, and love, but she still refused him.

Eventually his friends told him he should go on vacation, so he took his passe and they went on a vacation, but they didn't get very far, only just outside the city. He set up tents, and they had all kinds of fun doing everything they could think of to do. And got into all kinds of trouble.

One day he got sick of everybody and went out for a walk on his own, and this is where Botticelli picks up the story.

EEK GAD! THERESE A NAKED WOMAN BEING CHASED BY A DOG!

Nastagio falls upon the terrible scene of the knight chasing his beloved.

The knight was also spured by his beloved. He loved her dearly and when she refused him, he killed himself with the same sword he holds in his hands. Because she laughed at his sorrow and reveled in his mystery even after his death, she is doomed to be chased, and he is doomed to chase her every day in the different places where they went to be lovers.

Now, instead of doing fun things like spin the bottle, they do this:

He chases her with his dogs and then spears her in the back. He then rips out her cold hard heart, and feeds it to her dogs. Then she gets up and starts running away from him again. Wonderful circle huh?

Well Nastagio is like AH HA! PERFECT! That'll show her.

So he plans a wonderful banquet out in the forest, which was the thing to do to get away from city life and its problems.

And well, this happens:
Quite the disterbance huh? Well yeah.

And Nastagio gets what he wants. The woman who has been so cold to him is so affected she says that she will do whatever he wants. Including the hokie pokie aparently.

But, Nastagio is a good person, and he says he will preserve her honor and marry her instead.

So they get married:
And this sad little reception is the feast! It represents a very typical Italian wedding feast. The girls on one side, the old men on the other. But, it lacks all the happiness of a wedding. The bride obviously feels that Nastagio tricked her into it, but she doesn't have a choice, she is stuck because she doesn't want to end up like the couple in the forest.

While it seems like this is just BIZZAR! But, it does have a moral message.

There are lots of ice queens who think they are too good to get married, or get married to just any guy who dates them. The moral is a reminder that you need to do your duty to society, and to your family to have lots of babies. Being a spinster is not an option, unless you wanna run naked through forests for the rest of eternity.

There also is a bigger picture moral for both characters. The marriage symbolizes an end to the wastefulness of unmarried life. The money and time they both spent woeing and being woed is over, and now they can enjoy a peacefull settled life of a married couple.

A third interpretation is that the fourth scene, the feast scene, represents the opulence of the golden age of Florence, as well as the two families who commissioned the piece, place in society. The Pucci (family of the groom) was a new money kind of family, and the Bini (family of the Bride) was old money, ish. And they were both friends of the most powerful Lorenzo Magnificent.

This piece by such a popular artist definitely would have solidified the Pucci as members of high society. Anyone who saw it would've notice the portraits of members of political importance within the paintings. The pieces act as a sort of political propaganda.

Isn't this what you want to see on your wedding night?

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Medieval Cuisine

When we think of people living in castles, we often imagine them eating beef roast and huge drum sticks with massive sides of potatoes, with beautiful herby aromas and a few vegetable dishes dishes but it was actually quite different.

The notion of potatoes as the main starch is a relatively modern one. Potatoes were not native to Europe and grew only in the New World until travelers brought them back in the 1500s. The main starch in Europe was wheat in the form of bread, cakes, and pastries. It is also important to note that pasta is a far eastern dish. Remember in elementary school when they told you Marco Polo brought back spaghetti on his voyages east, well he did. Pasta is not an Italian thing, and neither is pizza as we think of it.

Pizza wouldn't be the same without Tomatoes, neither would Spaghetti for that matter. Tomatoes too come from the new world and were bred and perfected by the native peoples. But, tomatoes are members of the Nightshade family, so Europeans, knowing nightshade is deadly poisonous, stayed away from it at first, and still tend to avoid eating them raw. This developed the many great tomato sauces, pastes, and other dishes that we know and love today.

So, neither spaghetti or spaghetti sauce is actually Italian.

Medieval peoples diets were based mainly on hunting. Hunting scenes are very popular in tapestries and ivories, as well as manuscripts.

Many medieval people developed a love of fauna such as Frederick II who wrote a book all about birds.
Meat was probably the most diverse field of cuisine. There was of course the domesticated animals, like cattle, pigs, and fowl, but there were all kinds of animals to hunt, like deer, duck, geese, other fowl, foxes, squirels, and probably a few that have gone extinct since then. If they can find it in the forest, they ate it.

But, hunting was largely reserved for the nobility. The more common folk raised animals, like fowl and chickens that originated in India, but were all over Europe after 500 BC. They were bred for cock fighting initially, not eating or for their eggs, that was just an added bonus.

Common people lived on a more vegetable and starch diet. They grew veggies in their gardens and small plot fields, and grew grains in larger fields, as well as peas, beans, and other legumes. They would sell and trade these at market.

The feudal system is pretty easy to understand. The common folk would grow the food, and give a small percentage in exchange for the protection of their liege. Sometimes the ruler would put on feasts after a big hunt and invite some of the common people to eat, and of course they and the servants could eat the left overs. This way, the nobility had a relatively well rounded diet. 

But, it was rather flavorless. Most of the herbs we use today in cooking have new world roots, and the only spice Europeans had in good supply was pepper. Pepper came from the far east on the silk routs, and was in high demand, because the Europeans did like some flavor. But, only the richest could afford this spice and it was very expensive.

It is easy to see why Europeans were so excited when they found the new world. The new world was full of new starches, like corn and potatoes, and yummy veggies like squash and tomatoes. And also the flavors. Medieval Europeans did not have access to Sugar, coffee, or chocolate, all things we take for granted today. And you can take one look at decorative design in the 1700s and know how much they loved Pineapples.

Food can tell you a lot about a place, we just have to remember its not always been this way. Spaghetti in Italy and Potatoes in Ireland, are new things, and have no relation to their medieval identity.

Sadly, Eleanor of Aquitaine never ate duck with mandarin oranges, and Abbot Suger never had a candy cane.

Friday, February 3, 2012

ELEANOR!

Eleanor of Aquitain: 2 Husbands, 10 children, 1 divorce, countless lovers, Queen of France, Queen of England, Duchess of Aquitain. And the creator of COURTLY LOVE!

Eleanor was one of the greatest women in history. She was a lover of literature, arts, crusades, ruling, making her children look good, and most of all a lover of love.

She married her first husband, Louis VII king of France, when she was relatively young, uniting the realm of the franks with Aquitaine, making French boarders similar looking how they look today. Her and Louis had two children, two daughters, and went on a less than successful crusade together. After that, she decided she had enough of him and they got a divorce. (This may or may not have to do with Rumors she was sleeping with her Uncle).

In the divorce settlement, Louis got the kids, and Eleanor, well she got to keep Aquitaine. As in, most of France:
(Map from Historical Atlas by William Shepard) 
All that purple stuff now belongs to her and her second husband, (who was nine years younger than her and happened to be her third cousin) Henry II King of France! Yeah, who said Medieval Women couldn't have property and rights and stuff... Not Eleanor.Who said you can't marry your cousin??? Not Eleanor!!!

She had a happy marriage with Henry, they had eight kids. Then, when she got sick of him, she decided her son should be king of England, and she was imprisoned for that. But, Henry let her out, and she went back to her home town of Poitier, to do whatever she wanted, and she wanted to do some crazy stuff. (Not with her Uncle this time).

Her and her daughter Marie of Tours created the first courts of love, where troubadours told stories, sang songs, and put on plays. She wrote the rules of love with Andreas Capellanus. And this gave birth to the Courtly Love phenomenon.

The idea of courtly love is essentially that you should have a secret affair with a man, and said man should do whatever you want, whenever you want it, and anything and everything for you no matter the cost. One should give gifts, secret meetings, kisses, but not consummate the relationship.

This is where we get beautiful art objects like this casket:
(Casket in British Museum)

This went on for a while until Henry II died and her son Richard the Lionheart became king. In between her widdow hood and her death Eleanor had the joy of settiling all kinds of disputes between her children and grandchildren and their spouses. At this point she had family everywhere, Castile, England, France, Saxony, Brittany, and Sicily!

Imagine the issues.

Eleanor lived so she outlived all but her youngest son and her daughter Eleanor of Castille. And she was buried beside her husband at Fontevraud Abbey with a beautiful tomb effigy. 

This is also a reminder that ALLmost all sculpture in midieval times were beautifully painted. Her clothes have beautiful little designs on them. One can only imagine the beautiful textiles she might have worn, but that is a topic for another day.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

"I'm done on this side, you can turn me over now."

Spoke the man now revered as Saint Lawrence.

Yes, "I'm done on this side, you can turn me over now." Now why would a man say something that would be more suitable  for a soon to be well done steak?

Only because he was being grilled alive. And you thought crucifixion was terrible.

Naturally, Art about saint Lawrence is terribly interesting.

St. Lawrence in Tomb of Galla Placidia, Ravena

This depiction of St Lawrence is a mosaic in the funerarly monument of Galla Placidia, a wife to an Emperor, Mother to an Emperor and Sister to an Emperor. Or something of the such. Why she liked St. Lawrence? No one knows, but this is fantastic.

Naturally, St. Lawrence loves books. So much he has a book case full of them! And, he is not terribly afraid of getting them close to that roaring fire. Also, is that fire not the most beautiful fire ever? Look at the way it curls and the beautiful colors. From yellow to deep red to purple and blue. Very naturalistic. And can you imagine being in a small space, looking at this beautiful glass mosaic and seeing the light from your single candle move and make Lawrence's flames dance? Wow.

Poor St. Lawrence indeed.

After this mosaic, St. Lawrence is almost always depicted with his grate looking like every other saint ever does, that is until Donatello. Though, if I was grilled alive, I would sincerely wish heaven was a vegetarian zone and would not go anywhere near grills again.

Donatello's Martyrdom of St. Lawrence Pulpit at St Lorenzo Florence

1000 years later and we get this work by Donatello, and Lawrence is being placed on the grill. He doesn't appear to be the same selfless, pain loving, martyr here. He looks either, dead, if we assume he is the first man on the grate. Or, trying not to be dead. As in the second man.

Detail

Or, as what normally happened in medieval images, the second guy is Lawrence alive. The closer one is him dead. But, Donatello tried to escape medieval conventions with his perspective so it is doubtful he might have tried the, I'm going to make a crazy scene where the same person appears twenty times.

Like the Cupid and Psyche panels I just did a paper on.

Cupid and Psyche Panel, by Master of the Argonauts at Bode Museum Berlin 

Are you confused? Yeah, it happens. Its always best to assume that if a person is wearing the same clothes, than they are the same person.

But, what if that person is burning alive? Wouldn't it be assumed that they did in fact have clothing on that it would be burnt off the flesh?

Its always fun to look at the unapparent genius of artists. Especially ones like Donatello that don't settle for the inhuman body baking on the grill, or the simple saint standing with his beloved grill (Preying god will give up his love of steak).

I also find it interesting that this imagery, of his burning body on the grate, didn't turn up earlier. Usually if he is on the grate, he is passive. But this imagery, looking so struck and hurt, and full of pain, comes up at a time of prosperity, wealth, and for christ sake its the Renaissance. Everyone should be happy, right? No, I guess not.

Especially since guys like Savanderola were burning everything they could get their hands on. But, thats another story.