engleski

Frescoes and Graffiti as withnesses of the Mass Death

The paper treats relationship between inhabitans of Istria and death in time of great epidemic diseases of the 15th and 16th centuries. This relationship can be well seen in the work of local masters painters of frescoes in Istrian churches, especially in the works by masters Vincent and Ivan from Kastav with their famous versions of The Dance of Death - Dance Macabre. The other type of documentary sources are glagolitic graffiti, curved by common people in plaster of the church walls. They lively reflect circumstances of their time, tiny preoccupations of "small people", but are never mentioned in chronicles of a "great history". Research made by historians and medicine scientists discover ways and extensions of particular epidemics in Istria, manners of protection, consequences of them and the status of official health protection relating sick and deceased persons. Comparing all three different sources, we can imagine lively the picture of society of that ancient time, stigmatised by quick and multitude death. This was a time, in which life values changed very quickly and the triumph of death seemed to be inevitable.

death; plague; epidemics; 15th century; 16th century; graffitos; frescos; history of medicine; Istria

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