HUMANITIES II: "THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY: A TIME OF TRANSITION" QUIZ ANSWERS

"Not all men (and especially the wisest) share the opinion that it is bad for women to be educated. But it is very true that many foolish men have claimed this because it displeased them that women knew more than they did. Your father, who was a great scientist and philosopher, did not believe that women were worth less by knowing science; rather, as you know, he took great pleasure from seeing your inclination to learning. The feminine opinion of your mother, however, who wished to keep you busy with spinning and silly girlishness, following the common custom of women, was the major obstacle to your being more involved in the sciences."

- Christine de Pizan

"...'Mad sensuality corrupted her so that to hide the guilt of her debauchery she licensed all debauchery alike, and lust and law were one in her decree. She is Semiramis of whom the tale is told how she married Ninus and succeeded him to the throne of that wide land the Sultans hold. The other is Dido; faithless to the ashes of Sichaeus, she killed herself for love. The next whom the eternal tempest lashes is sense-drugged Cleopatra. See Helen there, from whom such ill arose. And great Achilles, who fought at last with love in the house of prayer. And Paris. And Tristan.' As they whirled above he pointed out more than a thousand shades of those torn from the mortal life by love."

- Dante Alighieri

The removal of the papacy from Rome to Avignon, France, in 1309 resulted in a split within the Catholic Church that produced two sets of rival Popes. This split is known as the _________.

Great Schism

Both Petrarch and Christine de Pisan modeled their own works on this author.

Augustine

"One day ... the rags of a pauper who had died from the disease were thrown into the street, where they attracted the attention of two pigs. In their wonted fashion, the pigs first of all gave the rags a thorough mauling with their snouts, after which they took them between their teeth and shook them against their cheeks. And within s short time they began to writhe as though they had been poisoned, then they both dropped dead to the ground, spread-eagled upon the rags that had brought about their undoing. These things, and many others of a similar or even worse nature, caused various fears and fantasies to take root in the minds of those who were still alive and well. And almost without exception, they took a single and very inhuman precaution, namely to avoid or run away from the sick and their belongings, by which means they all thought that their own health would be preserved."

- Giovanni Boccaccio

"Among Duccio's pupils was Simone Martini (ca. 1285-1344), a close friend of Petrarch, who worked for a time at Naples for King Robert of Anjou and spent the last years of his life at the papal court of Avignon. In Martini's work, we find the last great development of Gothic art, the so-called ________________ that swept Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. The elegant courts of France and the French kingdoms of Italy had developed a taste for magnificent colors, fashionable costumes, and richly embellished fabrics."

- International Style

"Dante, following a line of thought already developed by Abbot Suger and Thomas Aquinas, conceived the human journey as a slow ascent to the purity of God by means of the created things of this world. To settle for less than God was, in essence, to fail to return to the natural source of life. __________ is a crucial motif in The Divine Comedy."

- Light

Which one?

- Nicola Pisano

The 14th century (often called the _________, Italian for "300") is usually described by historians as the age that marks the end of the medieval period and the beginning of the ___________________ in Western Europe.

- Trecento - Renaissance in Western Europe

What was the disease that became known as the Black Death? When did it begin to sweep through Europe? From where did it originate?

- bubonic plague/1348/Central Asia

"When we use the word Renaissance to describe Italian art of the 14th through 16th centuries, the rebirth to which we refer is the revival of __________ art; the first step was the observation of the natural world."

- classical

"Why does Dante portray Satan so grotesquely? It is clear that he borrowed from Byzantine mosaics, with which he would have been familiar, in the baptistery of Florence...... angel of light (Lucifer—another name for the archangel Satan—means "light bearer").....been excavated by the force of his own fall from heaven. Satan is immobile, in contrast to God, who is the mover of all things. Satan is inarticulate because he represents the souls of hell who have lost what Dante calls 'the good of intellect.' Satan and all the souls in hell will remain unfulfilled as created rational beings, because they are cut off from the ultimate source of rational understanding and fulfillment: God. Intellectual estrangement from God is for Dante, as it was for Thomas Aquinas, the essence of damnation. This estrangement is most evident in the case of Satan, whose very being symbolizes the loss of rationality."

- intellect - Intellectual - Thomas Aquinas

"Ambrogio was granted an important commission for the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena's city hall (palazzo pubblico means "public palace"). Unusual for us in our study of Italian art thus far is this __________—rather than religious—commission. The three large frescoes on the walls of the Sala della Pace (the Hall of Peace) are the Allegory of Good Government, Bad Government and the Effects of Bad Government on the City, and Effects of Good Government on the City and on the Country (Figs. 11.17 and 11.18)."

- secular

"Like everyone else around him, Giotto (ca. 1267-1337) was influenced by his mentors and contemporaries. He certainly knew the work of Giovanni Pisano and ___________ and probably contributed to the discourse on __________ art. But Giotto's preeminent contribution to the history of painting was his realism. He acquired it through a close observation of the world around him—not only the natural world but also human behavior. The Byzantine style was defined by rich, glowing surfaces, with elaborate linear designs.... light and shadow known as modeling or _____________. Painted figures had the same palpable presence as sculpture carved in stone; for the 13th-century viewer, they even seemed to live and breathe. ...he halos of some of the angels obscure parts of those behind them; this is exactly how a crowd of people would look to us if we were standing in front of the throne."

-Cimabue - Classical - chiaroscuro

Who among the following guides Dante through the nine circles of hell?

Virgil