Video Reviews: More Human Than Human & Cataclysm: The Black Death Visits Tuscany

Video 1: More Human Than Human

Looking as far back as 100,000 years in history, the human form has obsessed artists. What is interesting is that people rarely create realistic images of the body. 

In 1908 in Austria, along the Danube River, an excavator in Willendorf unearthed a 25,000 year old carved, limestone, figurine. The 4" sculpture had grossly exaggerated breasts, hips, and female private parts, yet the arms were just barely indicated, resting on the huge breasts, and instead of facial features there is an elaborate hairstyle. Many similar 'Venus' figurines have been found throughout Europe, leading historians to believe that the small, exaggerated, female figures were deliberately created this way.

Venus of Willendorf

Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran posits that since our ancestors were hunters/gatherers, their existence and survival was difficult, therefore fatness and fertility, as seen in the Venus of Willendorf, would have been desirable characteristics. Ramachandran also quoted a study done on herring seagulls; the chicks were attracted to their mother's red-striped beak, but when a stick with a red stripe was offered, they had the same response. When a stick with three red stripes was shown to the chicks, they became even more excited. It made sense then to think that perhaps humans were also interested and excited by the exaggerated likenesses of the human body.

Climate changes forced nomadic tribes from far and wide to settle, and they chose to settle along the Nile River in Egypt. By 5,000 B.C. Egypt was a completely settled society; they were able to create a stable agricultural existence, an organized government, and a strict hierarchy among the social classes. The were also the first settled humans to use the human body extensively in art. Unlike the Venus of Willendorf, the figures were not grossly exaggerated, but they were still not realistic. For 3,000 years, Egyptian artists portrayed figures the same way, and they did this using a grid system.

Greek sculptor Polyclitus, was the first artist who wanted to show the physical potential of the body. He did this by dividing the body into different planes, and each plane was slightly tilted, giving the body slight twists and turns, as if ready to spring into action. The ancient Greeks were the first civilization capable of realism, yet they still had the instinct to 'exaggerate.'

This film was excellent, it made me think of art and portrayal of the human body in art in a whole new way. I had always, naively, assumed that the Venus of Willendorf was the clumsy work of an artist trying to create a fertility statuette. The ending of the film was so fascinating; for the Italian man who went spear fishing to stumble upon two amazing bronze statues is almost unbelievable! These two sculptures were also exaggerated, they were completely idealized examples of a mens bodies, they were 'more human than human.'

Video 2: Cataclysm: The Black Death Visits Tuscany

 

I chose to watch the video on the Black Death Visits Tuscany for two reasons. When I was working on my Art History BFA in the early 1990's I spent a semester living and studying in Siena, Italy, as part of Buffalo State College's Siena Program. I also have a morbid fascination with the Bubonic plague and the effects it has had on art and architecture. I have also read Bocaccio's Decameron, as well as Daniel DeFoe's Journal of the Plague Year. 

At the time of the Black Death, both Florence and Siena were richer and safer than they had ever been before. The first decade of the 1300's saw an explosion in the number of cathedrals, hospitals, public squares (such as Siena's Piazza del Campo), houses, as well as an increase in the number of paintings, sculptures, and works of literature. For the first time in centuries there was peace between rival city-states Florence and Siena. In 1260 Siena built it's landmark cathedral, and by 1337 they began an expansion of the cathedral due to the increase in the city's population.

The Plague began in China in the 1330's and was spread by the fleas on rats. By the time the illness reached Tuscany, people were already in a weakened state from bad crops leaving food scarce for the growing population. By the spring and summer of 1348 one third to one half of the populations were dead. To this day the wall that was to be part of the cathedral expansion in Siena still stands, unfinished. I have climbed to the top of that wall, and it is the most amazing view of the city, almost as good as the view from the Torre della Mangia.

The Center of Siena, Piazza del Campo

After the plague had finally subsided, people tried to understand what caused it and how could the cure it and prevent it from returning. I never realized that there was anti-Semitism going on at this time, but the film described how people believed that Jews had poisoned the public wells (the Jews drank from natural springs) in a conspiracy to kill Christians.

The Bubonic plague certainly affected the arts. Ambroggio Lorenzetti, a talented Senese artist, passed away from the plague. Artists who did survive had a new mindset. No longer were they painting a kind and loving Jesus, instead they were portraying a vengeful Old Testament God, angry at his people. Doubting Thomas also become a popular subject and also the depiction of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Siena

This film was also very well-done, and I learned some interesting facts that I had never heard before. Towards the end of the film they showed the progress of art that was beginning to happen after the plague. Artist Giotto was the first to create actual space for his figures, and they had real bodies and real expressions. I have been to the Scrovegni Chapel and seen his frescoes, they are remarkable. And Masaccio was the first to show one-point perspective in his painting in the Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Both of these artists were paving the way for the coming Renaissance.