You might think that the interest or the fame of the walking dead is an exclusively current issue.We are not talking about the classic zombies that return from the grave with cannibalistic anxieties, at all, we are talking simply of that interest centered on the figure of the dead and their significance.
It may surprise you, but throughout the history of art and especially in the Middle Ages It was very recurring an image as striking as "disturbing." It is "the three undead." A composition terrifies that we can see in works such as "The macabre dance" (Totentaz) or the classic "Triumph of death."
The legend of the three dead
There is nothing more enigmatic than death .An enigma to which neither science nor philosophy can answer us (for now) , an image that only religion has tried to explain to us from various prisms and always from a doctrinal point of view al.What is there after death? Is there a paradise, a punishment for the sinner, do we go to the shelter of a warm deity where forgiveness always exists? Art has been since its inception the field in which to express all these concerns, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance being those classic periods in which the "unintelligible" aspired to become close, even with a moral message.
We have a large number of artistic testimonies where a striking image is repeated: three skeletons break into everyday scenes, three dead people that scare, that "assault" the world of the living with his bones and open meats, but why? «The macabre dance», «The triumph of death», the mural of the «Convent of St.Paul of Penafiel», the «Book of the hours» of the fifteenth century and many others are examples of these representations that always tear us away from a chill.But what was intended with it?
There is a medieval fable entitled the " Three alive and the three living dead " that could give an illustrative explanation on the subject.In the British Library we are given a very clear indication about it and that we then go on to reflect you.This fable tells us about three young people from distinguished houses who enjoy their time and their idle life.the three decide to go hunting in the woods of one of the boys.Weapons in hand and gallop, start what in principle would be a day n ormal.
But at one point, when they are walking through the thicket of the forest, they find something shocking and inexplicable.They are three bodies, three ragged men and hardly any skin covering their bones that move towards them with great tranquility.The young people immediately notice that these three bodies lack life, that they are returned and that, for whatever reason, they still have the ability to speak.
Despite the terror and shock, they manage to attend to the words of these three undead. They speak to them about the fleetingness of life, the need to take care of their actions and to do good before it becomes Too late.As you can see, this fable is not exempt from the classical moralist character of this era.The "Memento mori" , the "remember that one day you will die", is extolled, so to speak.a conception in which we are made to think about the transience of life and the need to know how to take advantage of it certainly.
Why the insistence on the number three?
Why three undead and not two or five? The number three has a tradition in our history, also in religion, we have only to remember the image of the Holy Trinity.For Platon , for example, it was the image of the supreme being in its three personalities: matter, spirit and intellect, while for Aristoteles determined the totality of man: beginning, middle and end.
The Grim Reapers were 3, and 3 are the parts of the day; the 3 is, in turn, the number of the Masonic lodge...a a figure that fascinates and symbolizes power and unity, a prime number that apparently affects the fundamental principles of order .Hence it does not surprise us that there are also three dead people who appear in many of our artistic representations of the Middle Ages.Deaths, though, that do not pretend to remind us of the need to take advantage of this life, is sometimes so ephemeral for the human being...
Yes You liked this article, don't miss Dürer's and his magic riddles.
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