Girolamo Savonarola
(Dominican Friar)
Mendicant Orders
Asceticism PWP Slide
Asceticism CONNECTIONS… THINK OF
Bonfire of the Vanities
(when did it happen)
February 7, 1497
Bonfire of the Vanities
(where did it happen)
Piazza della Signoria, Florence
What was the Bonfire of the Vanities
Fra
means they are a brother or in the “order”
Mobilizing the Children – Donald Weinstein Reading
Mobilizing the Children – Donald Weinstein Reading
Key Concepts
Selected Writings of Savonarola Reading
(basically described bonfire of the vanities)
Savonarola replaced Carnival celebrations with a religious spectacle that culminated in burning objects of vanity to purify Florence from sin
Built a massive wooden pyramid in Piazza della Signoria
Burned:
Art, paintings, sculptures (even by famous artists)
Cosmetics, mirrors, perfumes, wigs
Musical instruments & books (including Dante and Boccaccio)
Gambling items & Carnival masks
All labeled “devil’s instruments
Rejection of beauty, luxury, and pleasure
Replaced indulgence with discipline, devotion, and purity
Literally burned worldly temptations to follow a more spiritual life
The Blacks - (Compagnia di Santa Maria della Croce al Tempio)
What did Comforters try to do?
Tavolette (little paddle sticks with pictures)
processions that took an icon or image around town
treated the iconic object as a living subject. By
contrast, confraternal execution processions treated
a living subject as an iconic object. While wooden
icons were believed to have their eyes and ears
open, the living prisoner had his artificially closed off
sensory cocoon - public shame
The prisoner’s body as artistic and literary object
9 image guide to die
basically guy threw poop on wall, and was found doing it, and was arrested, and condemned
The prisoner’s body as political object
Piazza della Signoria - cite of savonarolas (and 2 other followers) execution
they burned them here
was also the cite of the Florentine government
Palazzo del Bargello. Site of execution - many executions here
Chapel of S. Mary Magdalen, Bargello
Site of last night of prisoners to be executed
authorities privately tortured Savonarola before his execution
-
Public sham can be seen as human sacrifice
Using that person for the purposes of society