jan 1, 1340 - The Black Death

Description:

Triumph of Death (Buffalmaco, ca. 1330)

This work was created in the midst of a society in upheaval. Mercantilism was on the rise and is demonstrated by the conspicuous bourgeoise figures in the bottom-right corner and among the dead bodies. Literacy too was on the rise and the artist masterfully embeds text, written in Latin and early Italian, not only to provoke introspection in the viewer but also guide the eye across the massive area of the fresco through a system of carefully placed scrolls. Most importantly however, the work acts as a memento mori in a society ravaged by the death. Not only does it depict the duality of the earthly and the divine or hellish, life and afterlife but the journey of the soul between the two, a journey it asks its viewer to prepare for(1). It is the journey that all will have to make, regardless of earthly possessions, the destination dependent solely on the individual’s life of virtue or of vice.

1. Lorenzo Carletti and Francesca Polacci, "Transition between Life and Afterlife: Analyzing The Triumph of Death in the Camposanto of Pisa," Signs and Society 2, no. S1 (2014): S84-S120.