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The theme of suffering and death

Cité épiscopale d’Albi

The extensive use of representations of death and suffering as seen in the Cathedral de Sainte-Cécile was unusual in France in the 1490’s. The scale of these representations reflects a spiritual and existential anguish which can be traced to the changing relationship between man and death.

Traditionally, death held no fear and was considered as a simple fact of nature, a part of the order of the universe. In a society which placed much less importance in the idea of the individual, the socialisation of death and the knowledge that one’s memory would become the object of a cult of ancestors brought peace to the dying. However, in the last centuries of the Middle Ages, the plagues which ravaged Europe and the displacement of the survivors dislocated traditional society, leading to the development of a real traumatism, in all milieux, associated with the idea of death.

Henceforth, the chance of dying surrounded by one’s family and neighbours was significantly reduced. The cult of ancestors was no longer assured as the longevity of families hardly exceeded a generation and territorial communities became evanescent.

In addition, there was an increasing individualism of the elite class and the growth of the attitude dubbed by Philippe Ariès as the “death of the self.”

Death became a personal event and salvation an individual problem as witnessed by the representation in Albi Cathedral’s ’Last Judgement’ mural, of the dead each carrying a book around their neck on the day of the resurrection.

In parallel there appeared among the rich a more hedonistic attitude, a desire to take pleasure in life, which made death a painful loss.

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