The Fourteenth Century: A Time Of Transition
Outline Chapter 11
Chapter 11: The Fourteenth Century:
A Time Of Transition
OUTLINE
Calamity, Decay, and Violence
The Black Death
The Great Schism
The Hundred Years' War
Literature in Italy, England, and France
Petrarch
Chaucer
Christine de Pisan
Art in Italy
The Italo-Byzantine Background
Giotto's Break with the Past
Painting in Siena
Art in Northern Europe
Late Gothic Architecture
Music: Ars Nova
Timeline Chapter 11
Timeline Chapter 11: The Fourteenth Century: A Time Of Transition
c. 1280-1290
1296
1300
c. 1300
1305-1306
1310
1332-1357
1337-1453
after 1337
c. 1345-1438
1348-1352
after 1350
c. 1377
1378
c. 1385-1400
c. after 1389
1395-1406
1413-1416
1417
Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned; Crucifix, Arezzo
Florence Cathedral (Duomo) begun
Pope Boniface VIII proclaims first Jubilee Year ("Holy Year")
New naturalism in Italian painting appears with work of Giotto
Giotto, Arena Chapel frescoes
G. Pisano completes Pisa Cathedral pulpit
Gloucester Cathedral choir ("Perpendicular" style)
Hundred Years' War between France and England
Machaut, Messe de Notre Dame, polyphonic setting -Ordinary of the
Mass
Doge's Palace, Venice
Boccaccio, Decameron, collection of tales
Petrarch compiles Canzoniere, collection of poems
Wycliff active in English church reform; translates Bible into English
Great Schism begins
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, collection of tales
Christine de Pisan, The City of Women
Sluter, Well of Moses
Limbourg Brothers, illustrations for Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de
Berry
Council of Constance ends Great Schism - election of Pope Martin V
The Transition from Medieval Culture to the Renaissance
The fourteenth century marks the painful transition from the medieval
period to the world of the Renaissance. Its beginning saw the
construction of several major buildings in Italy, including Florence's
Duomo and Siena's Palazzo Pubblico, seat of city government. Music
flourished throughout the century, especially in France, where Machaut
was the leading composer of his day.
In the years shortly after 1300 the new naturalistic style of Giotto
revolutionized the art of painting, while the works of the Pisano family
proved equally important for the history of sculpture.
Yet the age was fraught with disasters and racked
by war: the Hundred Years' War between France and England
(1337‚1453) was barely under way when in 1348 Europe was devastated
by bubonic plague – the Black Death. Among the works of literature
to reflect the effects of the terrible plague is Boccaccio's Decameron.
The Papacy in Avignon
As the century began, the church appeared to be at the height of its
influence. In 1300 Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the first holy year,
and pilgrims flocked to Rome. Yet within a few years the French had
forced the transfer of the papacy to Avignon in southern France.
Among those who accompanied the papal court was the poet Petrarch,
many of whose sonnets deal with his love for Laura,
killed by the Black Death.
The "Babylonian Captivity" lasted from 1309 to 1376,
and the pope's return to Rome was embittered by the Great Schism,
which saw the Western powers locked in a struggle
to impose rival claimants.
The International Style
One of the artistic consequences of the papal
move from Rome was that Italian styles were carried north of the Alps.
The resulting blend of Italian and Northern elements is called the
International style, which quickly spread throughout Europe;
two of its main centers were at Prague and at Dijon.
The more cosmopolitan spirit of the age is also illustrated by the
career of the greatest English writer of the time, Chaucer,
who traveled to Italy and to France and may actually have met Petrarch.
International Style in Painting
By the end of the 14th century, the fusion of Italian and Northern European art
had led to the development of an International Gothic style. For the next quarter
of a century, leading artists travelled from Italy to France, and vice versa, and all
over Europe. As a consequence, ideas spread and merged, until eventually
painters in this International Gothic style could be found in France, Italy,
England, Germany, Austria and Bohemia.
Social Protests
In an age of such ferment the pressure for reform intensified.
In England, John Wyclif's charges of church corruption heightened
dissatisfaction among the lower classes, leading to peasant riots
in 1381.
Similar popular protests against both the church and the aristocracy
occurred in France in 1356, while in 1378 the poor woolen workers
of Florence revolted against the city authorities.
These manifestations of general discontent brought no immediate
radical changes in government, but they prepared the way for
the social mobility of the Renaissance.
The Hundred Years' War
The greatest struggle of the century, the Hundred Years' War,
was supposedly fought over the right of succession to the French
throne. In fact, its underlying cause was the commercial rivalry
between France and England and the attempts of both countries
to gain control of the wool-manufacturing region of Flanders.
The war's early stages were marked by a series of English victories,
culminating in the battle of Poitiers of 1356. By 1380 the French had
reversed the tide, and the last years of the century saw
inconclusive skirmishes, with both sides resigned to a stalemate.
Thus, a century in which political, economic, and religious strife
and revolutionary artistic developments were accompanied by
the disaster of plague produced deep changes in the fabric of
European society and made possible the renewal of the Renaissance.
The Black Death
• 1348 – death and devastation of European population from the
Black Plaque
• Boccaccio’s (1313 – 1375) Decameron
– Vivid description of the horrors of the Plague
– Thorough descriptions of life at the time
The Great Schism
• Convulsive changes in Christian church during the 14th
century.
• 1300 – Great Jubilee year declared by Pope Boniface,
Rome
• 3 years later Boniface abused and imprisoned by Philip
the Fair of France.
• 1309 – Seat of Papacy is moved to Avignon, France.
• 1378 – 1417: Great Schism divides Papal allegiances of
population between rival Papacies.
• Late 14th century peasant revolts throughout Europe.
The Hundred Years’ War
• Century of warfare between France and England.
Literature in Italy, England, and
France
•
•
•
Petrarch – (Father of Humanism)
Chaucer – (Father of English Literature)
Christine de Pisan - (Italian-born French poetess and philosopher)
Christine de Pisan
Petrarch
Chaucer
Art in Italy
Italo-Byzantine
Background
- Pisano
- Cimabue
- Duccio
- Giotto
- Martini
- Lorenzetti
Giovanni Pisano
Last Judgment (detail)
1310
Marble
Cathedral, Pisa
Massacre of the Innocents,
detail from pulpit
1301, Marble,
Sant'Andrea, Pistoia
Pulpit, 1301, Marble,
Sant'Andrea, Pistoia
Cimabue
CIMABUE, Crucifix
1268-71
Tempera on wood,
San Domenico, Arezzo
CIMABUE
Madonna Enthroned
with the Child
and Two Angels
Tempera on wood,
Santa Maria
dei Servi, Bologna
Duccio
DUCCIO di Buoninsegna
Agony in the Garden
1308-11
Tempera on wood, , Siena
DUCCIO di Buoninsegna
Agony in the Garden (details)
1308-11
Tempera on wood, Siena
Giotto
GIOTTO di Bondone
Baroncelli Polyptych
c. 1334
Tempera on wood,
Baroncelli Chapel,
Santa Croce, Florence
GIOTTO di Bondone
Baroncelli Polyptych
(detail)
c. 1334, Tempera on wood
Baroncelli Chapel
GIOTTO di Bondone
Ascension of Christ
c. 1300
Fresco
Upper Church,
San Francesco, Assisi
GIOTTO di Bondone
Christ Among the Doctors
1310s
Fresco
North transept,
Lower Church,
San Francesco, Assisi
Simone Martini
SIMONE MARTINI
Altar of St Louis of Toulouse (detail)
c. 1317
Tempera on wood, 56 x 38 cm
Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte,
Naples
Blessed Agostino Novello Altarpiece
1324
Tempera on wood, 198 x 257 cm
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti
LORENZETTI, Pietro
Beata Umilta
Transport Bricks to the Monastery
c. 1341
Oil on wood, 45 x 32 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
LORENZETTI, Ambrogio
Effects of Good Government on the City Life (detail)
1338-40
Fresco
Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
Art in Northern Europe
UNKNOWN MASTER, Bohemian
Virgin Enthroned
c. 1350
Panel, 186 x 95 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin
UNKNOWN MASTER,
Bohemian
St Bartholomew
and St Thomas
1395
Tempera on wood,
National Gallery,
Prague
Limbourg Brothers
LIMBOURG brothers
Les très riches heures du Duc de Berry
c. 1416, Illumination on vellum
Musée Condé, Chantilly
Late Gothic Architecture
-
Florence Cathedral
Duomo, Milan
Palazzo Publico, Siena
Doge’s Palace, Venice
Gloucester Cathedral
Florence Cathedral
1296 - 1462
Exterior view looking at facade,
with a glimpse of dome above
Overview of Dome
Duomo, Milan
Begun 1386
The main entrance portal
Pinnacles and flying buttresses
Palazzo Publico, Siena, Italy
1228 - 1309
Palazzo Pubblico at night.
Piazza Del Campo and Palazzo
Pubblico at dusk. Siena, Toscany, Italy
Doge’s Palace, Venice
1309 to 1424
Photo, exterior overview, showing the palace
in context across water, with tower behind
Photo, facade bay and details
Gloucester Cathedral
Music – Ars Nova
The Ars Nova In France
The rapid rise of polyphony in the 12th and 13th centuries
depended upon corresponding advances in style and notation.
It was an age of rapid invention. But once these innovations
had been transformed into usable techniques, composers
could concentrate on extracting the full potential of what had
been learned. This process of consolidation and refinement
was the task of the 14th century. Four major trends can be
discerned; first, increasing secularization; second, the growing
dominance of polyphony; third, the emergence of national
idioms and forms; and fourth, an increasing preoccupation
with musical technique.