[<<] 1400s [>>]
Related: Gothic art - Middle Ages - Gilles de Rais - rediscovery of Nero's Golden House - early Renaissance
Births: François Villon - Hans Holbein - Hieronymus Bosch - Quentin Matsys - Albrecht Dürer - Matthias Grünewald - Lucas Cranach - Hans Baldung Grien - Pietro Aretino - François Rabelais
Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels (c.1450) - Jean Fouquet Wood, 93 x 85 cm Antwerp
Jean Fouquet (or Jehan Fouquet, 1420 - 1481) was a French painter. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Fouquet [Oct 2005]
Venus, c. 1485 - Botticelli
Satyr mourning over a nymph (c. 1495) - Piero di Cosimo
Printing [...]
1455: Johann Gutenberg invents printing press using movable type cast from metalAfter a way had been found to cast precisely sized and shaped type, it became possible to arrange the individual letters in a wooden frame bound together with clamps. The first book published using this method was a translation of the Bible in 1455
Rediscovery of Nero's Golden House
When a young Roman inadvertently fell through a cleft in the Aventine hillside at the end of the 15th century, he found himself in a strange cave or grotta filled with painted figures. Soon the young artists of Rome were having themselves let down on boards knotted to ropes to see for themselves. The frescos that were uncovered then have faded to pale gray stains on the plaster now, but the effect of these freshly-rediscovered grottesche decorations was electrifying in the early Renaissance, which was just arriving in Rome. When Pinturicchio, Raphael and Michelangelo crawled underground and were let down shafts to study them, carving their names on the walls to let the world know they had been there, the paintings were a revelation of the true world of antiquity. Beside the graffiti signatures of later tourists, like Casanova and the Marquis de Sade scratched into a fresco inches apart. (British Archaeology June 1999), are the autographs of Domenico Ghirlandaio, Martin van Heemskerck, and Filippino Lippi [1] (http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97apr/rome.htm). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domus_Aurea [Jul 2004]
see also: grotesque, archeology
The Bonfire of the Vanities
The Bonfire of the Vanities refers to an event in 1497 when followers of the priest Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects in Florence, Italy. The focus of this destruction was on objects considered sinful, including vanity items such as mirrors, cosmetics, and fine dresses. Other targets included immoral books and pictures. Among the objects destroyed in this campaign were several original paintings on classical mythological subjects by Sandro Botticelli. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonfire_of_the_Vanities [Feb 2005]Belgium
Hell , the right panel from the triptych Garden of Earthly Delight Painted 1500 - Bosch
Dukes of Burgundy win control of what is now Belgium. The economically powerful areas of the Burgundian empire enjoy a period of cultural enrichment which produces artistic splendour and political prestige. The textile industries, which have developed in the Belgian territories since the 12th century, become the economic mainstay of northwestern Europe.
Gilles de Rais [...]
Gilles de Rais's castle at Machecoul, 40 km from Nantes. Gilles de Rais (also spelled Raiz, Retz) (autumn of 1404 - October 26, 1440) was a French aristocrat, soldier, and at one time, a national hero. He was later convicted of serial murder.
Gilles de Rais is believed to have somehow given rise to the legend of Bluebeard, although the legend bears little resemblance to the reality. Gilles de Rais appears by name as a character in the play Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw, as a young man of 25 who is set up to impersonate the Dauphin, which attempt is unsuccessful. The profile and notoriety of Gilles inspired many modern French thinkers and authors, such as Michel Tournier and Pierre Klossowski. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_de_Rais [Jan 2005]
Tobacco
1493 The use of tobacco is introduced into Europe by Columbus and his crew returning from America.Europe Claims America
October 12 - Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean. The Italian explorer believes he has reached East Asia. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1492 [Jan 2005]Events in counterculture
1400- 1500 EARLY RENAISSANCE (Florence under the Medici is the center; Leonardo da Vinci) 1398- 1416 Prague: Jan Hus, inspired by Lollards; Hussites & Taborites 1431 First German peasant revolt at Worms 1453 Gutenberg prints the bible at Mainz, Germany 1431- 1463 Francois Villon, "the first Bohemian" 1463 Orvieto, Italy: money loaned at interest to poor people 1481 Beginning of the Spanish Inquisition under joint direction of the state & the church (Torquemada) 1493 The first Bundschuh (peasants' revolt) in Alsace & sw Germany 1400s- 1500s Enclosures in Britain 1445- 1501 35,000 books printed in 10 million copies from 1000 offices--http://www.well.com/user/mareev/TIMELINE/list00-60.text [Sept 2004]
The Malleus Maleficarum (1486) Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger
- The Malleus Maleficarum (1486) Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger [Amazon.com]
The Malleus Maleficarum ("The Hammer of Witches" or the "Hexenhammer") is considered by many to be the classic Roman Catholic text on witchcraft, although it was in fact condemned by the Inquisition in 1490, and never officially used by the Catholic Church. First published in 1487, the book is notorious for its use in the witchhunt craze of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries.It was compiled by two Dominican inquisitors, Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer. They submitted the book to the University of Cologne's Faculty of Theology on May 9, 1487, hoping for its endorsement. This is usually taken as the date of publication, although earlier editions may have been produced in 1485 or 1486. It was published in a number of editions, thirteen times from 1487 to 1520 and sixteen times from 1574 to the Lyon edition of 1669. The book was popular throughout Europe, although less so in England and The Netherlands, and was accepted by both Catholics and Protestants.
Modern translations of the works include a 1906 German translation by J. W. R. Schmidt, titled "Der Hexenhammer", and an English translation (with introduction) by Montague Summers in 1928 which was reprinted in 1948 and is still available until today as a 1971 reprint by Dover Publications (ISBN 0486228029).
Through the Middle Ages and Renaissance and the entire time that witchcraft hysteria reigned, it was the most influential guide for popular witchhunters. Summers called it: One of the most important, wisest and weightiest books in the world. During its time it was second only to the Bible in sales, until John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress was published in 1678 and exceeded it. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum [Jan 2005]
In 1486, the first edition of the Malleus Maleficarum is produced in Germany by the Dominican inquisitors Hienrich Institoris (aka Henry Kramer) and Jakob Sprenger. Literally 'the Hammer of Witches', it codified the form of belief in witchcraft that spread, through fourteen editions by 1520, throughout Europe. It contributed enormously to the witch craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries in which thousands of people were tortured and killed. --http://www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/Timeline1.html#1307-1321.1 [Nov 2005]
Vlad the Impaler
1456
Vladislav Basarab of Transylvania gains the crown of Wallacia for the first time (until 1462, and again briefly in 1468). From his father he earned the nickname 'Dracula', son of the Dragon, but he earned for himself the name Vlad the Impaler, for his favourite method of execution. Despite a large amount of slander by his political opponents, many of the tales of his cruelty were true (he is said to have killed over 40,000 people in his reign). He was also a staunch defender of Christendom from the Turkish threat. [1897]. --http://www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/Timeline1.html#1307-1321.1 [Nov 2005]
Vlad III Dracula (also known as Vlad Tepes in Romanian or Vlad the Impaler) (November/December, 1431 – December 1476) reigned as Prince of Wallachia 1448, 1456–1462 and 1476. He was born in Sighisoara, a small town in Transylvania. He led an independent policy in relation to the Ottoman Empire. He is known in Turkish as Kaziglu Bey, or "the Impaler Prince", and is a popular folk hero in Romania and Moldova even today. However, abroad, he is popularly associated with the title of vampire — a character of Bram Stoker's horror novel, Dracula — to the point where he is thought to be the inspiration for it. It has been suggested that this inspiration stems from a certain grotesque eating habit Vlad III possessed: rumor has it he would consume bread dipped in pig's blood. His post-mortem nickname Tepes (Impaler) comes from the method of execution by impalement, propagated by the medieval Transylvanian brochures. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler [Nov 2005]
Hieronymous Bosch
1470 - 1516
The Dutch artist Hieronymous Bosch in this period produced paintings of religious theme and nightmarish impact -- the best known is The Garden of Earthly Delights. They came to the attention of the Inquisition after his death, but powerful patrons protected the collection. --http://www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/Timeline1.html#1307-1321.1 [Nov 2005]
Danse Macabre
1485
The first edition Danse Macabre is published in Paris by Guyot Marchant. The verses and illustrations are taken from the murals adorning the Cemetery of the Innocents. The first set of couplets, by an unknown author, deal with death coming to the forty stations of men. The matching verses for women are credited to Martial d'Auvergne. --http://www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/Timeline1.html#1307-1321.1 [Nov 2005]
Michael Pacher (1430–1498)
Altar piece at Brixen, South Tirol - Michael Pacher (1430-1498)
Altar piece at Brixen (detail), South Tirol - Michael Pacher (1430-1498)
Featured in Les peintres du fantastique (1996) - André Barret [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Michael Pacher (fl. 1462-1498, d. 1498) was an Austrian Tyrolean painter and sculptor active during the last quarter of the 15th century. His best-known work is the Saint Wolfgang Altarpiece which contains scenes from the life of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. His influence is primarily North Italian, and his work shares characteristics with that of painters such as Andrea Mantegna; however, German influences are also evident in his work, especially in his wood sculpture. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Pacher [Jan 2006]