Death and Representation in the Middle Ages

Considerations on the Image, the Iconography of Death and the Influence of the Black Death on the Development of Macabre Themes

Abstract

The search for the understanding of the processes of death and human nature, both physical and spiritual, was expressed during the Middle Ages in different ways. The relationship of men with their own death and the relationship of the living with the dead marked medieval society with a multiplicity of attitudes and reactions, often translated through the image. It is possible to observe the whole world of Christian eschatology during the Middle Ages represented in its rich iconography. The objective of this article is to present a small part of my doctoral research, which consisted in drawing a coherent profile of the universe related to death in the Middle Ages through an anthropological, historiographic and iconographic study. I address here, therefore, the importance and influence of the image in general for the medieval people, as well as the development of the representations of the so-called macabre themes and the themes related to death during and after the Black Death. We see that the profusion and the rich typology of the image of death at the time had different motivations. To this extent I hope to form an idea of how extensive the influence, the need and ways of using the image of death in medieval society was.