The Triumph of Death in fourteenth-century Italy

Abstract

The Triumph of Death emerged in an era dominated by mercantile prosperity and mendicant proselytising as the preeminent expression of the fourteenth century Italian macabre. This thesis—the first study devoted to all extant Trecento representations of this novel imagery—investigates the development of this dramatic visualisation of death within the social, economic, religious, and artistic context of fourteenth century Italy. It seeks to account for why the distinctive imagery of the Triumph of Death was created and became so popular. My study focusses on the nine surviving representations of the Triumph from the fourteenth century—in Pisa, Aufenstein, Bolzano, Siena, Florence, Subiaco, Lucignano and Merano—all of which depict a mass slaughter of humanity committed by a personification of Death. The substantial number of surviving works, the consistency of subject matter, and their broad chronological and geographic distribution offer compelling evidence that the Triumph was a widely popular image in fourteenth century Italy. Yet no version, other than the famed example in the Pisan Camposanto, has received comprehensive scholarly attention, and no in depth study into the entire corpus has been undertaken. Each constituent element of the Triumph is analysed in turn: Death personified and armed, the pile of corpses, and the living divided into visually opposed moral exempla. Thematic analysis allows for commonalities to receive be given detailed scrutiny while accounting for notable divergences and regional variations. Widely adopted by the clergy and vigorously promoted by the mendicant orders, the Triumph of Death gave memorable visual form to the dire warnings of preachers about the dangers of pride, avarice, and lust, levelling an aggressive censure at the sins of the urban populace. As Italy continued to grow its money economy and the balance of power shifted to urban elites and to urban spirituality, so too did Death become a citizen of the city.