Renaissance art: The effects of the Black Death on artwork of the time

Renaissance art : The effects of the Black Death

Introduction

In recent years , scares of contagious diseases spread and gripped the minds of the global populace because of the threat of the newly discovered bacteria and airborne diseases such as sars and birdflu Since the origin of these highly infectious diseases was around the Asian continent , countries in the west were alarmed and have quickly implemented certain measures to prevent the possible spread of these infections . Passengers coming from Asian countries were consistently checked as they arrive to their port entries . It

seems that the hard lessons learned through the whip of the Black Plague across Europe have been indelibly etched in the minds of the western people . The Black Death is the worst disaster that has ever plagued human history . This statement is attested by historians , and students who study the Medieval Period . Because of the havoc that the Plague has wreaked around Europe in the 14th century , and because of the trauma it has left on the population in general , traces of its horrors could even be felt today The Plague , as it has been appropriately called , had reached such an epic proportion in terms of its fatalities and it never chooses its victims . Indiscriminately , people from every class - royal class clergy , artisans , poets , peasants , wealthy and poor - has each have their share of its horror . It has been said that for an ordinary person today to have a grasp of how much destruction the Plague has inflicted Europe , one can just imagine a real nuclear war happening and its catastrophic effects (which , thankfully , until now hasn 't happened . Had it not been for the fact that surviving art works of those times are here to be observe and scrutinized by anyone interested , the question of how this terrifying event has shaped the psyche of the people at large from every class in the Renaissance Period , will leave everyone today wildly speculating on what might had been ( HYPERLINK "http /www .freeforessays .com /essays /Black-Death /93962 .html http /www .freeforessays .com /essays /Black-Death /93962 .html

Boccaccio 's Decameron

Giovanni Boccaccio was a poet and a writer in Italy who lived in the 14th century a time when people seemed to be experiencing a revival of past values . This period is more known today as the age of the Renaissance . During this time , there seems to be an explosion of expression in many facets of arts - in literature , painting and sculpting , architecture , and even in the area of politics . There seems to be a hunger for the recovery of the classical Grecian and Roman principles in the air . The period was aptly called the Renaissance which means literally a rebirth ' With this brief background in mind one can properly think of this period as the cradle of arts , and it was around this time that many of the famous artists were born - Francesco Traini , Hans Holbein (the elder , and the younger , and Giovanni Boccaccio , to name just three among many...