The Seventh Seal Flashcards
The Seventh Seal
Historical Medieval Events Spirit of the Black Death Visual Culture of the MA Literary & Material Culture of the MA 20th C Meaning
Historical Medieval Events
The Crusades Fall of Acre 1291 Failure of Subsequent Crusades Contemporary Fighting? Meaninglessness Witch-burning 1480s-1750s
Spirit of the Black Death
Black Death (1349-50) in Sweden Horror of Black Death Two Strands of Plague Judgement Day Fears Flagellants
Visual Culture of the MA
Albertus Pictor (1445-1509) Visual imagery from church paintings Dances of Death Vado Mori & equalising Scenery
Literary & Material Culture of the MA
Everyman (15th century) Morality play Ars moriendi Chess James of Cessole
20th Century Meaning
The Knight's Quest Existentialism Bergman's fear of death Magnus Ericsson's Letter ME: Fear of Unprepared Death Transactional Death Culture ME: Divine punishment John Arnold
HISTORICAL MEDIEVAL EVENTS 1
The Crusades
The Crusades
- Title card: “long years of Crusades in the Holy Land”
Fall of Acre 1291
Failure of subsequent crusades
- Could not co-ordinate
- Popular crusades?
Contemporary Fighting?
- 1340s: wars in eastern Mediterranean
- Aberth: conflict in Novgorod, ends July 1348
Meaninglessness:
- Run into Raval, the man who convinced them to go on crusade - “You sent your heavenly venom to poison the knight.”
HISTORICAL MEDIEVAL EVENTS 2
Witch-burning
Authorised end of 15th century
1478: Heinrich Kramer, Jacob Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum
1480s-1750
SPIRIT OF THE BLACK DEATH 1
Black Death in Sweden
Horror of the BD
Black Death (1349-50) in Sweden - Title card "in the middle of the 14th century"
Horror of the Black Death
- Deserted villages; almost-abandoned castle, fear, death
- 40% of the people
- Raval’s death - half-seen, stumbling, begging for water, can’t be helped/touched
SPIRIT OF THE BLACK DEATH 2
Two strands of plague
Strand 1: more common: high fevers, severe headaches, immense pain - victim lives several days - buboes and necrosis of the skin
Strand 2: less common strain: death in shorter time - attacking lungs, breathing difficulties, vomiting blood.
SPIRIT OF THE BLACK DEATH 3
Judgement day fears
Revelation of St John the Divine - The Seventh Seal - opening pages.
Chorus singing “Dies Irae”
John Clynn, Kilkenny - chronicle w/ blank pages in case “anyone should still be alive in the future”
Chronicles of Padua - more devastating and more final than Noah’s flood - some people still alive at the end of that
Popular preacher
Supernatural signs: conjoined twins, shooting stars, monster births. Film - Jons - four sons in the sky; two horses at each other.
SPIRIT OF THE BLACK DEATH 4
Flagellants
Chronicon Henrici de Hervodia: “using these whips they beat and whipped their bare skin until their bodies were bruised and swollen and blood rained down, splattering the walls nearby”
Hysterical emotionalism of the crowd watching and flagellants themselves (woman kneeling); all the people in the village praying, begging, crying etc. Audience given distance by mid-length shots of impassive faces of Knight / Jons / mute girl / Jof / Mia
Does not give context of framework that makes sense. Acknowledged by AP that “they think the plague is God’s punishment”, but said skeptically. But taking seriously penance for sins / BD etc (the fact that it was banned, Clement VI 1849).
VISUAL CULTURE IN MA 1
Albertus Pictor
Visual imagery from church paintings
Scenery
Albertus Pictor (1445-1509)
- Death playing chess with a knight - roof of the Taby kyrka, Stockholm
- In the film, painting a mural in the church
Visual images seen int he film which were in church paintings he saw as a child:
- “The Knight playing chess with Death. Death sawing down the Tree of Life, a terrified wretch wringing his hands in the top of it. Death leading the dance of the Land of Shadows, wielding his scythe like a flag.”
Grainy black and white filming. “Realistic sets”
VISUAL CULTURE IN MA 2
Dances of Death
Commonly depicted in MA
First surviving copy from a mural in the cemetery of Les Innocents in Paris (1424-1425).
INEVITABILITY
- Recognised in film: Albertus Pictor: “to remind people that they must die.”
- But Death is clown/monk and not skull.
EQUALISING
- Les Innocents: thirty figures dance, alternating clergyman and laymen, beginning w/ the most powerful at the front.
Cf. Vado Mori poems.
LITERARY & MATERIAL CULTURE OF MA 1
Everyman
Everyman (15th century)
Morality play
Everyman confronted w/ Death, given brief reprieve in order for him to find a companion to go with him on his journey to the afterlife.
Dialogue similar, but numerous differences.
IN ORIGINAL:
- God sent Death, no doubt over God’s existence
- Everyman: “Full unredy I am suche rekenynae to gyve” - preparation for reckoning before God
- Trying to find accompaniment to the afterlife - does penance so his good Deeds can come with him
IN REMAKE:
- “I want knowledge.” “You want gurantees?” “Call it what you like.”
- Block - fear “outrageous horror” - there may not be an afterlife - “no one can live in the face of death, knowing all is nothingness”
