Monday, August 31, 2009

Plague Influence Over Art in the 14th Century

The coming of the plague during the 14th century brought more religious worship as society felt the vastness of the plague. They turned to religion hoping to find salvation from the black death. Therefore, more methods of worship were created with the means of art. More images, scripture books, and religious statues were created to assuage the people's fervor over religion and its worship.

The style of Byzantine art was taken in and transformed into Italo-Byzantine art to express their fervor over the bible and its beliefs. The use of gold leaf was emphasized throughout the illuminated manuscripts to create more beauty in them. Therefore, the classical Roman and Greek art was followed within all these works of art, giving more elegance and grace to their worship. The level of cathedral construction rose even more as the number of black deaths increased; people felt the need for these holy places in order to pray and worship their salvation from the black death.

The chaos that the plague caused in society made more demand for religious and devotional artworks. This would assuage them from feeling hopeless in the face of death. Florence became the center of religious devotion with the use of art during that era. All artists created their art in Florence. Merchants gave the opportunity for many artists to create artworks and become known for them. With the merchants, art was also able to spread throughout all Florence and the rest of Italy during this era.

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