La Danse Macabre - Death in the Middle Ages

"La Danse Macabre" from 1492 Parisian text of the same title

The "Danse Macabre" (Dance of Death) is one subset of the Memento Mori genre, which bid its observers to "Remember you must die." The genre existed even before the Middle Ages, but gained momentum after the era of the Black Death, when death seemed truly unavoidable. In images of the Danse Macabre, Death himself dances with living men and women of all statuses, from kings and popes to children. These works depict death as the ultimate equalizer; death was an entity that did not discriminate. This served not only as a somber reminder of one's ultimate fate, but a moral motivator; luxury, excess, and personal success seem insignificant when they did little for a soul in the afterlife. However, how effective this message may have been is questionable, as even facing their mortality during the Black Death people reacted differently; while some were somber, reflecting on their lives, others saw their inevitable demise as reason to enjoy themselves while still living.

The Three Living and the Three Dead (14th c.) in vernacular

Perhaps one of the more commonly known Danse Macabre and Memento Mori genre storylines is the legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead, in which three living noblemen meet three animated corpses. Afraid, they cry out in disgust and dismay, only to be reminded by the corpses "I was well fair - such you shall be" or  "as we are, so shall you be," an ominous reminder of their eventual fate that is often enough to make the young nobles rethink their luxurious lives.

Though common in Medieval and later Renaissance art, the themes of the Danse Macabre and Memento Mori have also been immortalized as key part of the Middle Ages by films such as The Seventh Seal, where a Danse Macabre is mimicked by the characters in the end, and even The Kingdom of Heaven, where a Danse Macabre is painted on a wall and pondered by Balian. Though in modern minds the theme of Memento Mori and the Danse Macabre may have seemed a morbid and frightened obsession with death, it may also have been the opposite; the presence of death may have been a sign of its acceptance and peace with the concept in society. It was not necessarily a frightened recollection of death and turmoil, but a reminder that while life was to be enjoyed, it must be lived well, for the afterlife is vast - and certainly inevitable.

The Seventh Seal's Danse Macabre 

Resources:

British Library. "The Three Living and the Three Dead." The British Library: Medieval Manuscripts 
Blog, 16 Jan 2014, http://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2014/01/the-three-living-and-the-three-dead.html.

Lambeth Palace Library. "Featured Image: Danse Macabre." Lambeth Palace Library, http://www.lambethpalacelibrary.org/content/dansemacabre.

The Canterbury Tales and The Importance of Representation

Geofry Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is one of the finest examples of vernacular literature (written in middle English) to come from the 14^th century, in my opinion. His story follows a group of a couple dozen people going on a pilgrimage to St. Thomas Becket’s shrine. The host of the group goes around to have each pilgrim talk about themselves and proceed to tell stories.

The meticulously crafted style of rhyming couplets, and each line being exactly ten syllables long, certainly places this work as a good piece of literature, but that aspect coupled with what Chaucer offers in the message of his Canterbury Tales makes it a great piece of literature. The narrative device, as well as writing in a more common language (not latin), allowed Chaucer to represent many facets of life and many different kinds of people. The Miller’s prologue and tale are very bawdy, and incorporate a lot of bodily humor (see: fart jokes). The Wife of Bath’s section deals with matters of fidelity and feminine power. The Pardoner’s tale touches on themes of greed and death. The Knight’s tale follows a man learning to respect women in a more meaningful way (that one should be taken with a grain of salt. The fictional Knight in that story sexually abuses a woman to start his journey to respect women, and Chaucer himself had a history of sexual abuse). However, these stories are all about everyday people you could find while walking through a city in Chaucer's time. These are all authentic people with authentic concerns represented in their words. 

All of these stories are presented with a lot of irony and there is a great deal of humor mixed in, so they do not feel as dated as one might expect. Chaucer also interweaves a lot of social commentary into this narrative. His writing can be very pointed at times, especially those who hold the vices of greed or corruption.

Chaucer presents a wide range of different people that have not always been presented in literature, and therefore offers different underrepresented viewpoints or concerns. There are no epic heroes in these stories, no one of great fame or power. Instead, these are common people and the tales chronicle their every day concerns. This is one of the great strengths of vernacular literature, in that it can offer perspectives of real people. Rather than only presenting narratives about the elite and powerful, Chaucer adds to the tradition of telling stories about everyday folk. He shows us that this kind of representation is incredibly important, because it allows for broader narratives and more encompassing reflection of life.

The Seventh Seal and Experiencing Death

Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal has pretty much always been in the periphery of my film knowledge. I have heard the name, knew the general concept, but have never seen it until now. I used to think it was one of those classic movies that made you sound pretentious when you talk about it. I thought that's how this, or any review of the film, will sound due to its reputation as one of the greatest films of all time, because who would need to review a film like that?

However, the film surprised me quite a bit. It is a very humble movie in many ways. The subtle yet careful acting, the steady pace, the deliberate cinematography, and the psychologically charged plot all come together to make the film live up to its reputation. 

The movie follows a knight, Antonius Block, who has returned from fighting in the crusades to his country, Sweden, swept by the black plague. Upon returning he meets Death, who tells Block his time has come. However, Block challenges Death to a game of chess. If Block wins, he gets to keep his life. 

The film felt medieval, although I cannot speak for every accuracy or inaccuracy. I think Bergman definitely captured a good tone for the middle ages. His depiction may be a little bleak, but I think rather than that trying to be representative of the whole medieval period, it is reflective of how the people may have felt at the time of the black death. The dreary tone was a directorial choice to express what otherwise would be internalized by these people who feared or experienced the horrible disease, or death.

One of the most interesting parts of this film is that it is about a knight who has just done a lot of fighting in war, but the movie is not about war. The movie tackles the psychological effects of fighting in a war, and then returning home only to experience more death. Block is a very troubled character throughout the whole film. Following the tradition of existentialism in art in the mid-20th century Europe, we see Block continually try to deal with a crisis of faith. At one point, Block is shown to be locked in a prison cell with Death just outside the bars talking to him. Block says to Death, "No man can live with death knowing that everything is nothingness. [...] In our fear we make an idol and call it God." Block, after just fighting in war and coming home to only experience more death all around him, cannot come to grips that God could allow this to happen. His motivation for playing chess with Death is not to save his life, but to get answers about God and ease his existential crisis instead. 

Block was also not literally in a prison cell, but it seems we were rather within his mind. The film does a good job at blending reality and fantasy. It does it so well that it can be disorienting at times, where you don't exactly know where the characters are. One character, Jof, even has mystical visions at some points and sees things like the Virgin Mary with a baby, or Death. This mixing of reality and fantasy also might reflect how people experience death. Not knowing where the film is rooted in reality mirrors how dealing with a lot of grief can place you outside of reality and into the dream-like fantasies of your head as you try to deal with the emotional trauma you have experienced. 

Block is not only representative of how people of the time might have interacted with an abundance of death and widespead grief, but also people of any time period who fear that Death is 'always by their side,' as Death tells Block. I think it is incredibly interesting how the film uses this particular moment in history as a device to explain the sort of internal crises people would feel when death is taking so many around them and they might be next on the list. While, not completely using ideas from the middle ages and instead borrowing from the more modern school of thought of existentialism, in the end, this proved to be a very human story and its message transcends each particular moment in time. 

St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, a painting by Giotto di Bondone

Giotto di Bondone created many paintings of St. Francis of Assisi (WebMuseum). The largest painting in the panel to the left is called St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata. The paintings underneath (left to right) are Dream of Pope Innocent III, The Approval of the Franciscan Rule, and Sermon to the Birds. This panel was painted anywhere from 1295-1300 (Kahn Achademy). I will be focusing on St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata.

Stigmata are the marks Christ received on the cross. In this painting Christ, in the form of a seraphim, is giving the stigmata to St. Francis, who is kneeling.  Compared to other artworks of the time and previously, this work conveys more human emotions and positions, specifically the kneeling (Khan Academy). The stigmata was only given to people with exceptional faith, like St. Francis, and could only be bestowed upon someone in a holy fashion, like via seraphim.

We know this is St. Francis due to his brown robe and the halo above his head, showing that he was sainted after he died. It would be square if he was sainted while he was alive (Bennett).

Now this panel can be viewed in the Louvre in Paris.

Works Cited

Bennett, Judith M. "Chapter 10." Medieval Europe: A Short History. 11th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.

Khan Academy. "Giotto, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata." Florence, the Late Gothic. Khan Academy, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2016. <https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/late-gothic-italy/florence-late-gothic/v/giotto-st-francis-receiving-the-stigmata-c-1295-1300>.

Pioch, Nicolas. "Giotto Di Bondone." WebMuseum. BMW Foundation, 2002. Web. 03 Dec. 2016. <http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/giotto/>.

Housing a Saint: the Basilica of St. Francis

St. Francis of Assisi was a significant spiritual figure in 1200s who advocated for a simple life following the ideals of poverty, abstinence, and giving away of worldly items for a deeper spiritual life.  His ideas greatly influenced religious life in the 1200s, and during his own lifetime people were already honoring him as a saint.  His significance is revealed by the church built in his honor in Assisi shortly after his death, the Basilica of St. Francis.

The Basilica of St. Francis was consecrated by Pope Innocent VI in 1253 and the beautiful frescoes depicting St. Francis's life were painted by Giotto, Cimabue, and others in 1200s and 1300s.  St. Francis's body was transferred to the church as soon as the first building was completed and hidden in the ground beneath the high altar.  This action prevented his bones from being stolen to be sold as relics; when his tomb was rediscovered in the 1800s, his skeleton was fully intact, which was rare for a popular medieval saint.

The Basilica has two main levels--the upper church and the lower church.  The lower church, badly lit and tomb-like, was built first and displays frescoes done by painters from the early Sienese school.  These frescoes show St. Francis' life in relation to the life of Christ.  The upper church is strikingly different than the lower church; The interior is decorated in the Italian Gothic style: full of light and color, with an airy atmosphere.  The exterior has a plain facade done in a Romanesque style, with a double portal under a pointed arch as the only Gothic touch.  Painted in the lower register of the nave is Giotto's Legend of Saint Francis, which illustrates St. Francis' life.  Giotto's frescoes include a lot of nature and convey deep emotion, a perfect choice to for St. Francis.

Source:
"Basilica Di San Francesco, Assisi." Sacred Destinations. Sacred Destinations, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2016. <http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/assisi-san-francesco>.  

Medieval Bread

Bread was the most basic component of the medieval diet. No true recipe for bread thrived from the Middle Ages. This could be because they were lost or the it could be because bread baking was so common that recipes were passed down orally and by direct experience from one generation to the next. 

The basic ingredients for bread have remained the same. They would use a powdered starch (usually a flour made from wheat, spelt, rye, barley, or other grains), a liquid (usually milk or water), salt, and an ingredient to make the bread rise. Old dough or ¨barm¨ (fermenting grain mash into beer) were used to start bread dough rising. Besides the basic ingredients nuts, oats, dried fruits, and even beans were added into the bread for flavor and to act as fillers when grain was in short supply. 

Large institutions, such as castles or palaces maintained their own ovens allowing them to bake their own bread. Most people of the Middle Ages did not own their own ovens. Most people had to take their bread to a communal oven for baking. The ovens of the Middle Ages were usually large, domed structures, tall, and made of stone, clay, or brick making it difficult to own one in a house. The expense of maintaining it and keeping up with the wood supply for the fire would have been very difficult for an average Middle Age person. 

References:

1. Daily Life in the Middle Ages - Paul Newman. Pag. 15.

The Italian Custard and Medieval Sweets

Recently, I tried my hand at making a 15th century Italian custard tart (the crust is from the 16th century... sorry) from an interpreted recipe I found on a blog all about medieval food. The dish turned out much better than I expected, and I only screwed it up a little. It was a challenge for me because baking is the kind of cooking I do the least (too much of an exact science for me). But, it was still fun and I was very happy with the results. I'll probably make this dish again too.

All the credit for interpreting the recipe goes to Cassandra Baldassano, who co-runs the blog, Medieval Cuisine. The original recipe did not include any amounts for the different ingredients, and Ms. Baldassano was who assigned measurements, baking time, and tempterature to the recipe. In fact, none of the recipes I found included any sort of measurements. This makes me think that people in the middle ages must have been pretty decent cooks if they would not have needed recipes to follow to make a dish, especially with baked goods.

(I didn't get a picture of my custard,
but it looked really similar to this one.)

Researching the ingredients that went into this custard not only gave me insight to how this dish would have been made in the middle ages, but to how medieval desserts in general would have been made and appreciated. Both the custard base and the crust were relatively simple. The base consisted of eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and rosewater. The crust was made of flour, butter, eggs, and water. In the middle ages, the eggs would have been easy enough to acquire, as most rural people raised chickens or could easily trade with someone who did. The milk, while people did not drink it as we do today because it would spoil so quickly, would have also been fairly easy to acquire. Because of its susceptibility to spoilage, milk was often made into butter or cheese to preserve it. Therefore, butter would have also been easy to come by. All of these ingredients would have been readily available to most people of Europe because they were common and cheap.

However, two ingredients we now take for granted, the sugar and cinnamon, would have been hard to come by in the middle ages. Now, out of the two we only consider cinammon to be a spice, but sugar was also considered a spice then. These were extremely expensive in the middle ages because they had to travel great distances for the Europeans to use them. For example, cinammon had to be imported from India and parts of Asia through the middle east. Because these two ingredients were so expensive and not readily available to the public, they were mostly used by the higher classes. So, this particular custard would have been enjoyed by the nobility of Italy in the 15th century.

This is extremely different from how we experience sweets today. You can get ice cream at any fast food restaurant for only a buck or two, and you'll have it in your hands only minutes after ordering it. We take these foods, and ingredients like sugar and spices, for granted and don't usually recognize that they were not always so available. I wonder how people viewed desserts in the middle ages. They must have been viewed as more of a treat than they are today, considering the rarity of the ingredients that make them desserts. Were they prepared only on very special occasions? How often did the lower class versus the upper class eat desserts? How many of our own desserts are from the medieval period, such as this custard? The history of food is very interesting, and I'm glad I know a little more about it from following this antique recipe.

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Sources:

Newman, Paul. Daily Life in the Middle Ages. MacFarland and Company, Jefferson, NC, 2001,     pp. 3-36.

Baldassano, Cassandra. Euriol’s Culinary Journey, Medieval Cuisine. http://www.medievalcuisine.com

Custard tart recipe

Tart crust recipe