Singing in the garden: An examination of music in Trecento painting and Boccaccio’s “Decameron” [thesis]

312 Pages·1993·13.416 MB·English

by  Nora Maria Beck

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Singing in the garden: An examination of music in Trecento
painting and Boccaccio’s “Decameron”
Beck, Nora Maria, Ph.D.
Columbia University, 1993
Copyright ©1993 by Beck, Nora Maria. All rights reserved.
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Singing in the Garden: An Examination of Music in
Trecento Painting and Boccaccio's Decameron
Nora Maria Beck
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy
in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
1993
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C 1993
Nora Maria Beck
All Rights Reserved
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ABSTRACT
Singing in the Garden: An Examination of Trecento Painting
and Boccaccio's Decameron
Nora Maria Beck
The purpose of this thesis is to illuminate the role of
secular music in Trecento Tuscan society by examining
visual, literary, and musical sources of the period. The
representations of secular music-making to be explored
appear in three frescoes, Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Effects of
Good Government in the City (1337-40) in the Palazzo
Pubblico in Siena, Bonamico Buffalmacco's Triumph of Death
(133 0-45) in the Campo Santo in Pisa, and Andrea di
Bonaiuto's Allegory of the Dominican Order (13 66-68) in the
Spanish Chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novella in
Florence. The socio-political meaning of music in these
frescoes will be uncovered and compared to Boccaccio's
references to music in his Decameron. Aristotelian
political philosophy, Dominican scholasticism, metaphorical
and realistic portrayals of women, and narrative structures
based on the model of the exemplum will be seer, to be common
aspects of the paintings and Decameron and it will be argued
that these factors contributed to the formulation of the
Trecento musical aesthetic.
The music of Gherardello da Firenze, Lorenzo Masini,
and Francesco Landini will be analyzed in relation to the
aesthetic and cultural factors outlined above and it will be
shown that music, together with art and literature, promoted
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a sense of civic pride in the newly-forming Tuscan city-
states .
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF PLATES
Chapter Page
INTRODUCTION......................................... 1
1. EFFECTS OF GOOD GOVERNMENT IN THE CITY........... 23
2. TRIUMPH OF DEATH................................... 46
3. ALLEGORY OF THE DOMINICAN ORDER...................66
4. MUSIC IN BOCCACCIO'S DECAMERON....................95
5. BOCCACCIO'S MUSICAL AESTHETIC....................127
6. WOMEN AND TRECENTO MUSIC......................... 165
7. MUSIC AND THE TRECENTO AESTHETIC................ 211
BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................. 266
APPENDIX......................................... 286
References to music in Boccaccio's Decameron
PLATES....................................................296
L.
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LIST OF PLATES
Plate
1. Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of Good
Government In the City, Siena, Palazzo Pubblico
2. Lorenzetti, Good Government, Detail, ten female
dancers
3. Lorenzetti, Good Government, Detail, ten female
dancers, each numbered
4. Lorenzetti, Bad Government, Siena, Palazzo Pubblico
5. Giotto, Justice and Injustice, Padua, Arena Chapel
6. Bonamico Buffalmacco, Triumph of Death, Pisa,
Campo Santo
7. Buffalmacco, Triumph, Detail, Legend of the Three
Living and Three Dead
8. Buffalmacco, Triumph, Detail, Demons and Angels
Flying Above the Garden
9. Buffalmacco, Triumph, Detail, The Garden
10. Buffalmacco, Triumph, Detail, Woman Holding a White
Dog
11. Buffalmacco, Triumph, Detail, Woman Playing the
Mezzo cannone
12. Hans Holbein, The Ambassadors, London, National
Gallery
13 Andrea di Bonaiuto, Allegory of the Domincan Order,
Florence, Santa Maria Novella, Spanish Chapel
14. Bonaiuto, Saint Thomas Aquinas Enthroned, Florence,
Santa Maria Novella, Spanish Chapel
15. Bonaiuto, Allegory, Detail, Garden and Dancers
16. Bonaiuto, Allegory, Detail, Dancers
17. Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut.29.I,
Boethius: Musica mundana, humana, instrumental is
18. Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, VA14, Lady Music
19. Bonaiuto, Saint Thomas Enthroned, Detail, Ars musicae
u
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