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The Passion of the Plague: The Representation of Suffering and Salvation in Art and Literature

May, Madeline Adele
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1619453120236161

Abstract Details

2021, MA, Kent State University, College of the Arts / School of Art.
The aim of this thesis is to offer alternative approaches and solutions of the Italian Medieval artists and contemporaries in response to the catastrophic Black Death. As opposed to the pessimistic views of the time, which are largely the only responses considered, I offer benevolent approaches, displaying contemporaries’ positive and effective steps toward faith, religion, morality, and ultimately, salvation. First, I align my views with those of Millard Meiss in his celebrated book, Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death, in the tracing of a stylistic change following the epidemic. I continue to offer alternative approaches through the analysis of plague imagery, which calls upon saints and holy figures for divine intervention and celestial protection from the Black Death. The reappropriation of traditional icons such as Saint Sebastian and the Madonna della Misericordia, as well as the new invention and veneration of San Rocco in the late fifteenth century serve as a means of moving toward their faith and redemption. The final response this thesis offers is a piece of literature, Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. Throughout the Decameron, Boccaccio offers a map of morality of sorts to his readers, while also leaving the one hundred stories open for interpretation, allowing the readers to decide for themselves, which behaviors and characters are to be emulated and which are to be avoided.
Gustav Medicus, Ph. D (Advisor)
Kristin Stasiowski, Ph. D (Committee Chair)
103 p.
Art History
Black Death, plague, saints, suffering, salvation, art, art history, literature, Medieval, Italy

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • May, M. A. (2021). The Passion of the Plague: The Representation of Suffering and Salvation in Art and Literature [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1619453120236161

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • May, Madeline. The Passion of the Plague: The Representation of Suffering and Salvation in Art and Literature . 2021. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1619453120236161.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • May, Madeline. "The Passion of the Plague: The Representation of Suffering and Salvation in Art and Literature ." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1619453120236161

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2021, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12