CULTURES OF EUROPE
THE AGE OF CHIVALRY
The Middle Ages
c. 5th-15th century
The Fall of the Roman Empire
"Dark Ages„
(Early Middle Ages)
a characterization
highlighting the relative
scarcity of literary and
cultural output from this time,
especially in Western
Europe.
Christian Crusades
The Black Death
The Crucifix/Cross
Jesus Christ: Son of God and Son of
Mary (The Annunciation, The Holy Family)
The Last Judgement
• Christus, Petrus,
1452, Berlin –
hierarchy
• Next slide: Hans
Memling – a triptych
(altarpiece) – The
Last Judgement
(Gdansk)
Thomas Celano, 13th c. Latin Hymn:
Dies Irae
• Day of wrath! O day of mourning!
See fulfilled the prophets' warning,
Heaven and earth in ashes burning!
• Oh, what fear man's bosom rendeth,
when from heaven the Judge descendeth,
on whose sentence all dependeth
• Death is struck, and nature quaking,
all creation is awaking,
to its Judge an answer making.
Ják, Hungary: Romanesque church
Semicircular arches
Piers
Openings/Doors and Windows
Gothic cathedrals - heavenward
Pointed arches
Windows
Ribbed Vaults
Flying Buttresses
Monks and monasteries
Pagan Heroes: Beowulf
(England, 6-10th c.)
Courtly love
knights and women
Jousts, tournaments
King Arthur and the Knights of
the Round Table – The Holy Grail
Arthur (top centre) in an illustration to the Middle
English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,
late 14th century
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King Arthur
Queen Guinevre
Sir Launcelot
Merlin, the wizard
Sir Gawain
Sir Galahad
Mordred
Morgan Le Fay
Welsh, French, English and
Latin works
Medieval pragmatism – the grotesque
and humour
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury
Tales, Ellesmere Manuscript
(early 15th c.)
Francois Villon: QUATRAIN THAT
VILLON MADE WHEN HE WAS
DOOMED TO DIE
I'M Francis ill avails it me
Born near Pontoise, in
Paris see :
Whose neck, at the end of
a rope of three,
Must feel how heavy my
buttocks be.