Christine Kralik
Dissertation: A Matter of Life and Death: Forms, Functions and Audiences for the Three Living and the Three Dead in late Medieval Manuscripts.
Abstract:
This dissertation examines approaches to illustrating the Three Living and the Three Dead, a moralizing tale known across Europe in the late Middle Ages. Illustrated versions of the texts survive in a number of different manuscript contexts. While the earliest depictions tend to show an apparently benign conversation occurring between living and dead, by the fifteenth century other ways of illustrating the tale had emerged. The most striking of these was the aggressive chase after the living by the dead, which most often accompanied the prayers of the Office of the Dead in Books of Hours. The popularity of the tale was also reflected in the number of possible manuscript contexts in which the story could appear. While previous art historical investigations have concentrated on localization, chronology, as well as stylistic and formal analyses, my project engages with the larger questions of function, audience, and the relationship between text and image.
The thesis begins by situating the Three Living and the Three Dead in the scholarship on the art of death of the late Middle Ages. The art of that period has long been perceived as a reflection of a time of decline and excess. This argument was built primarily on a consideration of large-scale monuments, mostly French and primarily displayed in public, funerary contexts. By expanding the contours of the discussion to include private devotional images that showcase related subjects, it becomes possible to recognize the practical and positive functions that private devotional images representing death could serve for their users.
The wide range of possibilities for illustrating the story of the Three Living and the Three Dead in its early history are established in chapter two. This overview is followed by case studies which offer close examinations of individual manuscripts and which reconstruct the context of use and reception of the Three Living and the Three Dead in a variety of contexts.
In sum, my project sheds light on the importance of the imagery of death and more specifically of the Three Living and the Three Dead in late Medieval culture. It contributes to our understanding of a story that became popular across Europe in a variety of forms in response to the context in which it appeared, the function it was intended to serve and the audience for which it was intended.
Supervisors: Prof. Jill Caskey
Abstract:
This dissertation examines approaches to illustrating the Three Living and the Three Dead, a moralizing tale known across Europe in the late Middle Ages. Illustrated versions of the texts survive in a number of different manuscript contexts. While the earliest depictions tend to show an apparently benign conversation occurring between living and dead, by the fifteenth century other ways of illustrating the tale had emerged. The most striking of these was the aggressive chase after the living by the dead, which most often accompanied the prayers of the Office of the Dead in Books of Hours. The popularity of the tale was also reflected in the number of possible manuscript contexts in which the story could appear. While previous art historical investigations have concentrated on localization, chronology, as well as stylistic and formal analyses, my project engages with the larger questions of function, audience, and the relationship between text and image.
The thesis begins by situating the Three Living and the Three Dead in the scholarship on the art of death of the late Middle Ages. The art of that period has long been perceived as a reflection of a time of decline and excess. This argument was built primarily on a consideration of large-scale monuments, mostly French and primarily displayed in public, funerary contexts. By expanding the contours of the discussion to include private devotional images that showcase related subjects, it becomes possible to recognize the practical and positive functions that private devotional images representing death could serve for their users.
The wide range of possibilities for illustrating the story of the Three Living and the Three Dead in its early history are established in chapter two. This overview is followed by case studies which offer close examinations of individual manuscripts and which reconstruct the context of use and reception of the Three Living and the Three Dead in a variety of contexts.
In sum, my project sheds light on the importance of the imagery of death and more specifically of the Three Living and the Three Dead in late Medieval culture. It contributes to our understanding of a story that became popular across Europe in a variety of forms in response to the context in which it appeared, the function it was intended to serve and the audience for which it was intended.
Supervisors: Prof. Jill Caskey
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