CULTURES OF EUROPE

THE AGE OF CHIVALRYThe 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 • 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 DIEI'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.