Early Modern Europe From Squalor to Splendor

A Dangerous World  Early modern Europe unable to protect itself from famine, disease, accidents and social violence  Pre-modern medicine did not work against disease. Antibiotics did not exist, surgery often killed the patient, and since germs were unheard of, antiseptic practices had no meaning  Diseases were swift (influenza), not slow like AIDS  Typhus, smallpox and typhoid were deadly

More Dangers  Bubonic Plague was worst… continued to return to kill in Europe. It is a disease of rats and rodents, transmitted by fleas.  Up to a ¼ of children died by the age of one, another ¼ by the end of fourteen  Family was destabilized by constant death; few Europeans knew their grandparents

Other Major Concerns  Famine

Other Major Concerns  Severe Punishment

An Artist’s Interpretation “The Triumph of Death” by Belgian Oil Painter Pieter Bruegel (1562)

An Artist’s Interpretation L’umana Fragilita (1656) by Salvator Rosa: “Conception is a sin, Birth is pain, Life is toil, Death a necessity.”

Rosa’s Life  In 1655 a devastating plague swept Naples. Salvator Rosa's son, his brother, his sister, her husband and five of their children, all died. The transience of human life was a recurring theme in 17th century painting and thought, but for Rosa, in the year he made this painting, the subject had a tragic immediacy. A letter to his friend Ricciardi makes clear the effect this multiple bereavement had upon him: "This time heaven has struck me in such a way that shows me that all human remedies are useless and the least pain I feel is when I tell you that I weep as I write."

An Artist’s Interpretation Jacques Callot, Plundering and Burning a Village (1633)

Thirty Year’s War  The Thirty Year’s War took place from 1618 to 1648  It involved all of Europe at various points; largely religious conflict.  Description of Art From Previous Slide : Armed soldiers pillage and burn a village including a small chapel in the upper centre (there is a cross to its left). The inhabitants and livestock are rounded up to be taken off as prisoners or booty. Livestock can be seen being herded at the lower right. A man can be seen being killed at the lower left under a tree. There is a grieving wife who sits next to her dead husband in the centre foreground.

The Shield: Religion  In 1500 Europe, religion pervaded almost everything  Providence refers to divine care and God’s justice on Earth; according to providence, there are no “accidents”  In this model, all good and bad things come from God

The Shield: Religion  Salvation was God’s equity in the next world; given by the church which made them powerful  Inevitably Christians would sin; and sin again; and sin again  Without help, people lacked the power to save themselves  The necessary help was grace, a gift dispensed by God alone, but channeled through his Church  Much of the church’s edifice was paid for by prayer  Christians, in the face of death and danger, paid the clergy to pray for them

The Shield: Religion  Salvation is God’s equity in the next world. In early Europe, it was allotted by the church, which gave them extreme power  Inevitably Christians would sin; and sin again; and sin again  Without “help”, people lacked the power to save themselves  The necessary help was “grace”, a gift dispensed by God alone, but channeled through the church  Much of the church’s edifices were paid for by prayer  Christians, in the face of death and danger, paid the clergy to pray for them