Валерия Косякова – Apocalyptic Concepts in the Middle Ages (страница 14)
The progress of the 12th and 13th centuries affected various areas of applied culture: ceramics, blacksmithing, and glassmaking. The windows and stained-glass windows of monumental Gothic cathedrals were decorated with scenes from biblical lore, including apocalyptic scenes. Daylight shimmered through the stained glass (light, beauty, and harmony are emanation from God, according to the scholastic project realized in Gothic art), illuminating images of the Last Judgment drawn from manuscript miniatures 64.
During the 13th century, cities flourished across Europe, stimulating the development of universities, the arts, and intellectual culture 65. Images of the Last Judgment appeared with renewed vigor in the architecture of Gothic cathedrals: they adorned the central portal of Notre-Dame de Paris, later the north portal of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Reims, St. Stephen's Cathedral in Bourges, and many others.
The extraordinary rise in culture was also reflected in the tradition of illuminated manuscripts, in particular the apocalypses of France and England in the 13th and 14th centuries, executed in the Gothic style to match the new, elevated type of architecture.
The Gothic type of Apocalypse arose around the 1240s in England in the context of discussions about the End of the World, inspired by the sermons of Joachim of Fiore ( Gioacchino yes Fiore ). Besides him, many European thinkers expected the coming of the Antichrist around 1260.
The "Morgan group," a collection containing similar illustrated copies of the Apocalypse, is 66an example of the Gothic cycle . In the first versions, the illustrations were accompanied by commentary by Berengadus, and later the text of Revelation itself was added. In copies from 1245–55, the images occupy a significant portion of the page and are more colorful and detailed. The text of Revelation and its commentary are placed beneath the three-dimensional image, appearing as a modest addition. The total number of images in these manuscripts ranges from 80 to 100. Scenes depicting the deeds of the Antichrist and the apocryphal life of John were added to the traditional visual set of Revelation illustrations of the Romanesque period 67.
The exquisite Gothic style began to spread throughout northern France and Flanders in the late 13th century, and soon captivated other European nations. The extensive "Morgan Group" comprises approximately 100 manuscripts from the 13th to 15th centuries, produced throughout Europe. Initially, they were intended for monasteries, as the illustrations conveyed theological thought. However, commissions for these new apocalypses increasingly came from the aristocracy and the court, resulting in exegetical picture books being transformed into exquisite tomes for personal use, increasingly embracing entertainment and decoration, intricacy and luxury.
From this extensive family of European Gothic manuscripts, a specifically English tradition of apocalypses is distinguished: the "Metz group," which arose in the mid- 13th century; the "Westminster group," to which the Apocalypse from The Cloisters Museum (New York) , created in Normandy, 68belongs 69. The Trinity College Apocalypse, Cambridge, summarizes the early English Gothic tradition
Magnificent Gothic manuscripts of the Apocalypse inspired artists in Foggy Albion to create frescoes in Westminster Abbey, and in France , the creators of the grandiose "Apocalypse of Angers." The Gothic Cathedral of Saint-Maurice in Angers was adorned with a series of unique tapestries depicting numerous scenes from the Apocalypse, woven from wool and silk (between 1373 and 1381) for Louis I of Anjou by his court weaver, Nicolas Bataille.
At the same time, on the continent, independently of England, its own Gothic tradition was developing. The Bible, moral or popular (
Some 85 miniatures illustrating the commentaries of the Franciscan monk Alexander of Bremen (Minorite, c. 1242) continued the tradition of historical interpretation of the Apocalypse in the German Gothic cycle. Alexander's work, inspired by the views of Joachim of Fiore, provoked the development of a visual tradition that synthesized historical facts and apocalyptic symbols: Roman emperors became horsemen of the apocalypse, heresiarchs sounded their trumpets as apocalyptic angels, and real figures from chronicles were portrayed as demonic monsters. Historical figures appear as equivalents 70: in the scene with the four winds (Rev. 15), the angel bearing the seal of the Living God is interpreted as Constantine the Great, and the two-faced angels trampling the winds, depicted as animal heads, are interpreted as the pagan emperors Maximinus, Maxentius, Licinius, and Severus 71. This manuscript survives in various copies and may have influenced later works, such as the 45 panels on the Apocalypse from an altarpiece created around 1400 by the Master of Bertam.
The iconography of some other German Apocalypses may also have reflected specific political or spiritual ideas. Heinrich Hessler ( Heinrich von Hesler , a poet from a noble and influential family, wrote a verse rendering of the Apocalypse, popular within the Teutonic Order, where manuscripts of his works, complete with miniatures, were produced 72. The illustrations reflect the specific ideology of the Teutonic Order: one miniature depicts knights in the Order's armor, alongside the Prince of the End Times, fighting against Gog and Magog , while the next image depicts the baptism of Jews by a priest of the Teutonic Order
Manuscripts and copies of the Apocalypse were created across Europe, and cathedrals were erected, replete with visualized scenes of the Last Judgment and the New Jerusalem. Years of unending premonition of the apocalypse dragged on. The Black Death (the plague of 1346–1353) raged , giving 74rise to images of a macabre dance in which the Bony One indiscriminately carried away tsar, merchant, priest, and peasant. The idea of the inevitability of pain, suffering, and death, as well as the equality of every person, regardless of status, in the face of this inevitability, exerted a powerful influence on the medieval mentality, gradually eroding and destroying faith in the salvific chosenness of the clergy, who perished just like the most hardened sinners. Salvation from the Black Death depended on luck, hygiene, and immunity—but not prayer. Skepticism and hopeless irony permeate Boccaccio's Decameron, in which ten representatives of the "golden youth" of 14th- century Italy organize a "feast during the plague" in order to brighten the painful expectation of imminent death with frivolous and entertaining stories.
The 14th century was marked by cataclysms : the Great Famine, which began in 1315, gave way to the Black Death, the Guelph-Ghibelline feud in Italy, the Hundred Years' War in France, and the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Eastern Europe. These disasters were understood as apocalyptic punishments, giving rise to unique religious movements and doctrines. News of yet another catastrophe, spreading throughout towns and villages, provoked outbreaks of both deeply Christian and anti-Christian beliefs, often leading to collective psychoses that expressed themselves, on the one hand, in extreme piety and asceticism, and on the other, in Sabbaths, ecstatic dances, and the mass murder of Jews. Ancient superstitions, tabooed by the church, were resurrected: spells, magic, witchcraft, sorcery, and witchcraft—the devil surged into the everyday world with renewed vigor, tempting us with temptation at every turn; and religious extremes, in turn, became a frantic reaction to all this outrage.
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