Page 215 - Kavur, Boris. Devet esejev o (skoraj) človeški podobi. Založba Univerze na Primorskem, Koper 2014.
P. 215
summary
peasants were those who tamed the wilderness surrounding them. Conse-
quently the ideological opposition to wilderness was not the elitist and cour-
teously urbanized society but the traditional and conservative society based
on agriculture, commitment to the village community, low degree of mobili-
ty and traditional family life which was linked to seasonal production cycles.
In these frameworks was formed the image of the wild man, image of a
human being which due to its non-inclusion in to the stable social system ex-
ceeded class limitations. It was formed as the opposition of agrarian produc-
tion and village way of life, but since it was excluded from this class it got as a
rebel against humility the image of nobility and at the same time with its
wildness became acceptable for the Medieval social elite.
It was the society of consumers of products of applied arts from which
in the 15th century formed the social class called “mecenic” by Michael Baxan-
dall. A relatively small proportion of society which featured an response to
arts which was important for artists – mostly merchants and intellectuals
which acted as members of fraternities or as individuals, nobility and court
members as well as higher positioned members of religious orders (Baxandall
1996, 53). Inhabitants of cities played in renaissance culture only a minor role
of consumers of cheaper and on a mass scale produced items of applied arts,
while the peasants were absolutely excluded from this active process of co-in-
fluence on the production.
For the later were intended only forms of applied arts which did not
have only primary aesthetical, but mostly educational intention – church
frescoes as Biblia pauperum. Even more, Peter Burke mentioned that in reali-
ty we can’t imagine how little images circulated before the discovery of mass
printing in public, if we can call it like that at all. Illuminated manuscripts
and table paintings which represent today sources of illustrations of wild man
were kept in private collections and the only images accessible to a broader
public were church frescoes and sculpture (Burke 2001, 17). It was a fact,
which was put forward very early by Gregory the Great and was quoted ever
since “(images) from the walls should be read by those, who are unable to read
from books.” (Burke 2001, 48).
John of Genoa formulated in the 13th century in Catholicon three rea-
sons for erection of images in churches. The first one stated that the later were
necessary for “education of common people, since they educate them as a kind of
books.” Keeping this in mind we should not forget the proper understanding
of images – we can be sure that majority of medieval frescoes were too com-
plex to be understood by the illiterate and uneducated people. In 1492 the
Dominican friar Michele da Carcano used in his sermons about the necessity
215
peasants were those who tamed the wilderness surrounding them. Conse-
quently the ideological opposition to wilderness was not the elitist and cour-
teously urbanized society but the traditional and conservative society based
on agriculture, commitment to the village community, low degree of mobili-
ty and traditional family life which was linked to seasonal production cycles.
In these frameworks was formed the image of the wild man, image of a
human being which due to its non-inclusion in to the stable social system ex-
ceeded class limitations. It was formed as the opposition of agrarian produc-
tion and village way of life, but since it was excluded from this class it got as a
rebel against humility the image of nobility and at the same time with its
wildness became acceptable for the Medieval social elite.
It was the society of consumers of products of applied arts from which
in the 15th century formed the social class called “mecenic” by Michael Baxan-
dall. A relatively small proportion of society which featured an response to
arts which was important for artists – mostly merchants and intellectuals
which acted as members of fraternities or as individuals, nobility and court
members as well as higher positioned members of religious orders (Baxandall
1996, 53). Inhabitants of cities played in renaissance culture only a minor role
of consumers of cheaper and on a mass scale produced items of applied arts,
while the peasants were absolutely excluded from this active process of co-in-
fluence on the production.
For the later were intended only forms of applied arts which did not
have only primary aesthetical, but mostly educational intention – church
frescoes as Biblia pauperum. Even more, Peter Burke mentioned that in reali-
ty we can’t imagine how little images circulated before the discovery of mass
printing in public, if we can call it like that at all. Illuminated manuscripts
and table paintings which represent today sources of illustrations of wild man
were kept in private collections and the only images accessible to a broader
public were church frescoes and sculpture (Burke 2001, 17). It was a fact,
which was put forward very early by Gregory the Great and was quoted ever
since “(images) from the walls should be read by those, who are unable to read
from books.” (Burke 2001, 48).
John of Genoa formulated in the 13th century in Catholicon three rea-
sons for erection of images in churches. The first one stated that the later were
necessary for “education of common people, since they educate them as a kind of
books.” Keeping this in mind we should not forget the proper understanding
of images – we can be sure that majority of medieval frescoes were too com-
plex to be understood by the illiterate and uneducated people. In 1492 the
Dominican friar Michele da Carcano used in his sermons about the necessity
215
