CHAPTER 10: THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY—A TIME
OF TRANSITION


I. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• To explain the impact on the Trecento of the Black Death, the Great Schism, and the Hundred years’ War
• To present an overview of literature in Italy, England, and France in the fourteenth century, including major works by Boccaccio, Dante, Petrarch, Chaucer, and Pisan
• To examine the transition from Gothic to Early Renaissance art in Italy and elsewhere in the fourteenth century
• To survey the great buildings of the fourteenth century in Italy and England
• To present the major features of fourteenth-century music, the Ars Nova, and its major composers


II. OUTLINE OF CHAPTER CONTENTS

The Fourteenth Century
The Great Schism
The Hundred Years’ War
The Black Death
Literature
Dante Alighieri
Francesco Petrarch
Geoffrey Chaucer
Christine de Pisan
Art in Italy
Italo-Byzantine Style
Pisano, Father and Son
Painting in Florence: A Break with the Past
Cimabue
Giotto di Bondone
Painting in Siena
Duccio di Buoninsegna
` Simone Martini and the International Style
Ambrogio Lorenzetti
Late Medieval Architecture
Secular Architecture
Cathedral Architecture
A New Musical Style—Ars Nova
Guillaume de Machaut
Francesco Landini


III. FIGURES, MAPS, AND TABLES

Figure 10.1 Enrico Pazzi, Dante Alighieri
Map 10.1 The Black Death
Figure 10.2 The Structure of Dante’s Divine Comedy
Figure 10.3 Domenico di Michelino, Dante Illuminated the City of Florence with
His Book The Divine Comedy
Figure 10.4 Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, General Prologue
Figure 10.5 Nicola Pisano, pulpit of the baptistery
Figure 10.6 Nicola Pisano, Annunciation, Nativity, and Adoration of the
Shepherds, relief panel
Figure 10.7 Giovanni Pisano, Annunciation, Nativity, and Adoration of the
Shepherds, relief panel
Figure 10.8 Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets
Figure 10.9 Giotto di Bondone, Madonna Enthroned
Figure 10.10 Giotto di Bondone, Arena Chapel
Figure 10.11 Giotto di Bondone, Lamentation, Arena Chapel
Figure 10.12 Duccio di Buoninsegna, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints
Figure 10.13 Duccio di Buoninsegna, Life of Jesus
Figure 10.14 Duccio di Buoninsegna, Entry Into Jerusalem
Figure 10.15 Giotto di Bondone, Entry of Christ Into Jerusalem
Figure 10.16 Duccio di Buoninsegna, The Betrayal of Jesus
Figure 10.17 Giotto di Bondone, The Betrayal of Jesus
Figure 10.18 Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, Annunciation altarpiece
Figure 10.19 Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Peaceful City, detail of Effects of Good
Government on the City and the Country
Figure 10.20 Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Peaceful City, detail of Effects of Good
Government on the city and the Country
Figure 10.21 Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
Figure 10.22 Doges’ Palace, Venice
Figure 10.23 Gloucester Cathedral, England
Figure 10.24 Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo), Florence
Figure 10.25 Flemish school, Romance of the Rose, the Lover and the Dame
Oyseuse (Lady Idleness) in a garden
Figure 10.26 Fourteenth-century musicians and instruments, De musica I


IV. SUGGESTIONS FOR CLASSROOM DISCUSSION

Calamity, Decay, and Violence

What effects did the cataclysmic events of the fourteenth century—the Black Death, the Great Schism, and the Hundred Years’ War—have on the arts and culture of Europe?

Age of Transition

1. What examples demonstrate that the fourteenth century was a transition between medieval and Renaissance cultures?

2. Compare and contrast Cimabue’s Madonna Enthroned (Fig. 10.8), Duccio’s Maesta (Fig. 10.12), and Giotto’s Madonna Enthroned (Fig. 10.9). How do these paintings illustrate the movement away from medieval sensibilities toward Renaissance sensibilities?

The Great Schism

The Great Schism promoted a greater criticism of religious institutions in Europe. Discuss how this criticism appears in the works of Chaucer and Boccaccio.

Naturalism

1. How do the works of Giotto, Sluter, the Pisanos, and the Lorenzettis show the emerging emphasis on naturalism and realism?

2. Giotto is credited with the rediscovery of realistic painting. What makes a painting look realistic (or if you wish, why do so many medieval paintings [and some modern art] not look realistic)?


Music

Listen to some of the ballads and madrigals of the fourteenth century. How do the lyrics of these pieces compare to modern secular music?

Canterbury Tales

Have a student read aloud Chaucer’s Prologue in this chapter. Then play a recording of Chaucer’s Prologue read from the original. Ask students to count the number of words they recognize. Discuss the evolution of living languages.

The Divine Comedy

1. Describe the people assigned to Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Who are the most colorful figures in Hell?

2. Compare the depiction of Hell in Dante’s Inferno to the mosaic from the dome of the Florentine Baptistery. What do these images reveal about how Hell was pictured in the Middle Ages? What would a modern version of Hell look like? How would it differ from the medieval view of Hell?