Pre-Renaissance
For this week’s assignment, the Pre-Renaissance, there was a lot of description of art dealing with religion. The main section of this reading I will cover is how art at this time often depicted differences in heaven and hell. One of the great art pieces of this time, Last Judgment by Giotto, shows the differences very well. This art piece shows how on one side the saved souls are rising up towards heaven showing how the saved are righteous. However, on the other side it shows hell with individuals who were considered disordered, violent, and they are located in the lowest domain of the universe. In this same painting we can see there is a bishop that is approached by a damned soul who is carrying a bag of money. This is indicating that the damned soul is trying to buy their way into the saved souls. This specific part of the painting is believed to represent the financial sin.
This specific painting and meaning behind it is interesting to me because I can see how it relates to my own life currently. For those individuals that are religious, heaven is the place everyone is trying to end up and hell is viewed as the place no one wants to end up, the same as in the painting. The painting also has someone trying to “buy their way in” and people still believe they can do that today. I personally have had conversations with people in the military about their views and some believe they can do whatever they want and at the end they just plan to give everything away and all will be forgiven. This to me is the same as what the damned soul in the painting was trying to do by buying their way into heaven.
Another section covered in this reading was the art styles around the time of a series of disasters in Western Europe. In 1329 there was a famine, in 1333 a flood, in 1335 the smallpox epidemic that killed thousands of children, in the 1340’s the Bardi and Peruzzi banks failed, and in 1348 the bubonic plague. The bubonic plague killed millions of people, in Florence and Siena, it was estimated that 50 and 70 percent of the residents died. Following the loss of so many people there were population shifts, economic depression, and this in return lead to a change in artistic style.
This change in style following loss of individuals and such disasters is something I can relate to easy. In the beginning of my time spent in the military a big style of art a lot of us were getting into were tattoos. Before being deployed the tattoos a lot of us were getting were more positive, upbeat, and motivational tattoos. Things we were proud to show off and talk about. After losing friends and brothers however that style changed for many of us, just like the style changed for the artist in the 1300’s following the disasters such as the bubonic plague. After losing people we were so close with the art style of the tattoos as a whole became darker and had a lot more meaning behind them. The style went from proud and motivated to a remembrance and darker style.
I agree with what you said about the art piece Last Judgement. It shows the differences in heaven and hell and who will go where. It depicts the good souls and bad souls. This painting also relates to my life because as a Catholic no one wants to go to hell. I think there are many different people who try to buy there way into heaven like it is shown in the picture. People will go volunteer every now and again. But to for me, I see heaven as a place the majority of us will go and it isn’t something we should worry too much about. We just need to be good people every day.
