medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Although Millard Meiss makes the argument that the the Camposanto in Pisa
(or Triumph of Death Fresco) is painted in reaction to the Black Death, the
accepted view now is that this is not the case. Art Historians now argue
that the fresco predates 1348, perhaps by as much as 15 years.
One of the themes that appears in this fresco is that of the Three Living
and the Three Dead...the three princes on horseback in the far left of the
panel, that are looking at the three corpses below them. The appearance of
this tale can be documented as early as the late 13th century in a literary
form in France. Later (post-plague) visual representations became more
common than literary ones...especially in parish churches (see
www.paintedchurch.com), however the visual motif appears in England as early
as 1300 (de Lisle Psalter).
The real way that this concerns your question is that the Three Living and
the Three Dead is a story about men confronting their own mortality in a
very individual way. The three dead are (in some versions) the corpses of
the three living coming to warn themselves of their unavoidable demise, in a
very doppleganger-esque fashion. In all the manifestations of this tale,
the three living are afraid of the prospect of early death. Since these
stories predate the plague by perhaps a century this seems significant.
I hope this helps.
Stacy Kerr
University of Southern California
PhD Student
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Dear Chris (and Gyorgy)
> Your comments are of course relevant, but my problem has so specific
> features that it stands out from the general attitude to death. The prayer
> to the Virgin Mary 'Obsecro te sancta Maria mater Dei' has a clear
> distinction between the wish to know the day and hour of the death (here
> and now in actual life) and the subsequent plea for her interference for
> salvation on the ultimate day. Two different and separate events. Gyorgy
> Gereby has a point in bringing Mark 13,32-37 into consideration. The
> 'Vigilate' is, however, excusively about the coming of the ultimate day and
> not about timely death. I am not a theologian, but it would not surprise me
> if the Carmelites had mingled the passage to fit all purposes.
>
> My working hypothesis is that the concept originated sometime around 1350
> and was spread from the papal court in Avignon shortly after by way of an
> indulgence.
> It did not play any major role in England, but ended there in 1502 in a
> printed Book of Hours in a completely corrupted rubric mixing all the
> elements together and placed before an entirely irrelevant prayer in this
> connection:
> "Quicunque hanc orationem sequentem devote quotidie dixerit, genibus flexis
> (!), non morietur sine confessione: nullus hostis visibilis neque
> invisibilis ei nocere potest illa die: et gloriosissimam virginem Mariam
> videbit ante diem exitus sui in adjutorium sibi." (cf. Hoskins: Sarum and
> York Primers p.123).
>
> Is the expressed common fear of sudden death (mors subitanea) not a
> relatively late phenomenon, mainly playing a prominent role in the
> generation following the black death and the understandable panic it
> provoked?
> The German 'Totentanz' originated in 1350 and the first artistic expression
> of real horror that comes to mind is the Camposanto in Pisa (Triumph of
> Death).
> Earlier representations of the horror of death were always connected with
> Hell and the Last Judgment and not the actual timely death of individuals.
> Best
> Erik
>
>
> At 10:53 +0100 11/02/03, Chris Daniell wrote:
>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>>
>> As far as I can gather from my reading it is commonplace for saints and
>> other holy people to know the time of their impending death and so be able
>> to prepare for it thoroughly. This certainly occurs in Anglo-Saxon
>> literature (for example St Cuthbert) though the foreknowledge does not give
>> a precise time, rather along the lines of 'he knew he was about to die ...'
>> A variation on this something happens just before death (having been in a
>> coma the saint speaks just before death etc). This is of course different
>> from your average person knowing when they were going to die.
>>
>> The alternative to this is that sudden death (without preparation) is seen
>> as very bad.
>>
>> Foreknowledge and sudden death occur very frequently in literature (I have
>> written about this is 'Death and Burial in Medieval England 1066-1550). One
>> aside is that from a literary perspective some deaths (virtually all
>> sudden) denote an evil person (drowning, being struck by lightning ...)
>> whilst good people have foreknowledge and preparation time.
>>
>> Chris Daniell
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
>
> Mag.art. Erik Drigsdahl CHD Center for Haandskriftstudier i Danmark
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