Of Corpses, Constables and Kings: The &lt;I&gt;Danse Macabre&lt;/I&gt; in Late Medieval and Renaissance Culture

Oosterwijk, Sophie

doi:10.1179/006812804799451385

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…The depiction of skeletons in art has a very long history and appears already in ancient Egypt and Greco‐Roman times (Collins, ; Cohen, ; Oosterwijk, ). In the Middle Ages the skeleton started to be used artistically as a personification of Death in some of the Dance of Death artworks, and as a symbolic element in other ‘macabre’ artistic themes with a memento mori content, such as the Triumph of Death (Ariès, ; Huizinga, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The theme first came to the forefront in the 1420s and then rapidly spread across Europe during the second half of the 15th century (late Middle Ages). Its popularity resulted in a large number of cycles that also incorporated influences from oral tradition, literature, music and, of course, medieval sacral art (Oosterwijk, ). The theme continued to inspire artists long after the Middle Ages, leaving a rich record of works (as well as surviving copies) that allow us today to carry out a valuable comparison and interpretation of the artworks in different time periods and geographic regions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anatomical knowledge among medieval folk artists: osteological interpretation of two Dance of Death motifs

et al. 2013

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Anatomy has a long history that started with dissection of animals and then expanded and flourished thanks to dissections performed on human bodies. Artists had a crucial role in uncovering the secrets of human anatomy. While most studies have focused on the influence of famous Renaissance artists on human anatomy studies, the anatomical drawings by pre-Renaissance artists and local craftsmen have remained in their shadow. One of the most popular artistic genres in which complete or parts of human skeletons appear is the Dance of Death (Danse Macabre). This article is an anthropological study of two medieval Dance of Death frescoes that are unusual in being relatively early as well as accurately datable. A comparative morphological analysis of the two late 15th century works present in Istria has been conducted. The two works were painted by two local masters and show how the artists filled the gaps in their knowledge of human anatomy mostly with insights into animal bones and imagination. Their artworks, even though only 16 years apart, demonstrate substantial differences in the representation of the skeletons. The article argues that the history of medicine and of art could make good use of osteology and physical anthropology in attempts to define and understand how anatomical knowledge developed among pre-Renaissance and post-Renaissance artists and local people.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anatomical knowledge among medieval folk artists: osteological interpretation of two Dance of Death motifs

et al. 2013

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“…Balassan plays the piano inside a building, and while he plays he is also staring outside his window or balcony, where he sees skeletons dancing to his tunes, next to the ruins of an ancient city. With these visual traits Franko referred to the centuries-old European motif of Dance of Death 52 and a poem by Henri Cazalis, which was the inspiration of Saint-Saens' composition:…”

Section: Conclusion: Pera's (?) Dance Of the Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caricaturizing “Cosmopolitan” Pera: Play, Critique, and Absence in Yusuf Franko's Caricatures, 1884–1896

Kentel¹

2018

Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association

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This article explores a unique series of caricatures made between 1884 and 1896 by Yusuf Franko Kusa, a high-ranking Ottoman bureaucrat and a venerated member of fin-de-siècle Pera's high society. Yusuf Franko's hitherto unstudied caricatures were comparable to contemporary European caricatures in style, but their subject matter was very local, as he exclusively represented the elite networks that built and enjoyed "cosmopolitan" Pera, one of the central districts of late Ottoman Istanbul, in his art. These caricatures were never published, but bound as an album by the artist himself and circulated among Yusuf Franko's entourage, members of elite society of Pera. Through close scrutiny of Yusuf Franko's drawings and especially of the absences in them, the article provides a visual mapping of Pera's social topography and explores what images can show that is sometimes ignored in textual sources. It is argued that the satirical form and the inter-visual references employed by Yusuf Franko to represent his inner circle promise to unravel the complexities embedded in Pera's society, with more nuanced criticisms towards his fellow elite members than the conventional literature on Pera. Yusuf Franko appears not only as an illustrator of urban life in fin-de-siècle Pera, but also an active participant in the making of this urban life through his playful acts of elite community-building, i.e., the informal and underground circulation of the images within high society. This article thus attempts to show one particular way in which visual sources can be treated as historical agents themselves, as well as serving as sources for (urban) history-writing.

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“…The use of photographic images to record 'dark' events, from natural disasters to wars, genocide, murders and famines, is almost as old as the practice of photography itself, although this was of course predated by the production pictorial representations of the 'danse macabre' from the Middle Ages onwards (Oosterwijk, 2004). Trachtenberg (1985: 1), for example, claims that the American Civil War (1861-65) was the 'first significant crisis in modern history to occur within the memorializing gaze of a camera', since when what Berger (2013: 30-33) describes as 'photographs of agony' have become a powerful and ubiquitous means of not only reporting conflict, death, atrocity and suffering but also arousing an affective responsehorror, shock, outrage, guiltamongst viewers (Butler, 2005;Sontag, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The photograph: tourist responses to a visual interpretation of a disaster

Wright

Sharpley

2017

Tourism Recreation Research

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Photographs have long been used as a means of interpretation at museums and other tourism attractions, including dark tourism sites. Typically, such photographs are documentary, recording or depicting subjects relevant to the theme of the site. Less common, however, is the use of respesentational or artistic photographs, and little is known about their effectiveness as interpretation tools. This paper address this gap in knowledge. Based on research in L'Aquila, Italy, the site of a major earthquake in 2009, it explores the responses of tourists to a photograph interpreting the disaster displayed in the city centre. It reveals that the photograph is a highly effective form of interpretation, connecting tourists with the human dimension of the disaster, although the provision of background information on the photograph would enhance the tourists' experience.

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Of Corpses, Constables and Kings: The <I>Danse Macabre</I> in Late Medieval and Renaissance Culture

Cited by 7 publications

References 1 publication

Anatomical knowledge among medieval folk artists: osteological interpretation of two Dance of Death motifs

Anatomical knowledge among medieval folk artists: osteological interpretation of two Dance of Death motifs

Caricaturizing “Cosmopolitan” Pera: Play, Critique, and Absence in Yusuf Franko's Caricatures, 1884–1896

The photograph: tourist responses to a visual interpretation of a disaster

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