Virtual Museum - 14th Century (1300-1399)

Early 1300s - Windows of the Choir in Cologne Cathedral

Jan 1, 1300

The massive and ornate stained glass windows of the choir housed in Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany are a representational masterpiece of stained glass, and unique in their massive scope (the choir has the largest height to width ratio, 3.6:1, of any medieval church). The cathedral as a whole is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996.

14th Century

Period: Jan 1, 1300 to Dec 31, 1399

1300-1399

1310 - Giotto di Bondone - Scrovegni Chapel Fresco Cycle

Jan 1, 1310

During the period 1303-10, Giotto painted a series of fresco murals in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Famous panels in the series include The Adoration of the Magi, in which a comet-like Star of Bethlehem streaks across the sky, and the Flight from Egypt. These frescoes marked a major turning point in Western art. For the first time, we see figures who - in contrast to traditional iconography - are emotionally expressive and quite realistic looking.

1311 - Duccio di Buoninsenga - Maestà

Jan 1, 1311

A seminal artwork of the early Italian Renaissance, the front panels make up a large enthroned Madonna and Child with saints and angels, and a predella of the Childhood of Christ with prophets. The reverse has the rest of a combined cycle of the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ in a total of forty-three small scenes; several panels are now dispersed or lost. Duccio's Maestà set Italian painting on a course towards more direct presentations of reality.

1314 - Zhang Wo - Celebration in Jade Pool

Jan 1, 1314

A representative piece of famed 14th century Chinese painter Zhang Wo, Celebration in Jade Pool is a masterful work in the “pure style” of Li Gonglin. It currently resides in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

1320 - Pietro Lorenzetti - Virgin and Child between St. Francis and St. John the Baptist

Jan 1, 1320

Considered the elder Lorenzetti’s most important work, the great polyptych of The Virgin and Child with Saints is still located on its original site on the high altar of the Pieve in Arezzo.

1320 - Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy

Jan 2, 1320

Widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature, Dante’s epic poem is representative of the medieval worldview as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language.

1320 - Phillipe de Vitry - The Motets

Jan 3, 1320

Unlike most medieval theorists, de Vitry was a composer of international and lasting reputation and of outstanding ability. Much of de Vitry’s literary output is lost, but he probably wrote the poetic texts of his surviving motets (a short piece of sacred choral music, typically polyphonic and unaccompanied). The earliest of these appear in the Roman de Fauvel (a 14th-century French allegorical verse romance of satirical bent). https://youtu.be/hpaZRW9A80s

1321 - Stefan Milutin - Gračanica Monastery

Jan 1, 1321

Gračanica was constructed on the ruins of an older 13th-century church of the Holy Virgin, which was built on the ruins of a 6th-century early Christian three-naved basilica. It was located in the very heart of Eparchy of Lipljan in central Kosovo. On July 13th, 2006, it was placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

1326 - Jean Pucelle - The Belleville Breviary

Jan 1, 1326

The Belleville Breviary is the most famous illuminated breviary (illustrated religious text) known to French painting of the 14th century. It was produced around 1323-26 for Jeanne de Belleville - wife of Olivier de Clisson - by Jean Pucelle, one of the great experts in miniature painting of the day. The Breviary remains one of the most striking “Gothic Illuminated Manuscripts” of the 14th century.

1332 - Ambrogio Lorenzetti - Virgin and Child between St. Nicholas and St. Proculus

Jan 1, 1332

One of the best-known paintings of the innovative Pre-Renaissance Italian painter Ambrogio Lorenzetti, the Virgin and Child between St Nicholas and St Proculus triptych served as an altarpiece for the Church of Saint Procolo in Florence.

1333 - Simone Martini - The Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus

Jan 1, 1333

In 1333, Simone Martini and his brother-in-law Lippo Memmi completed the great altarpiece of the Annunciation, formerly installed in the chapel of Saint Ansano in Siena Cathedral. The two saints are generally considered to be the work of Memmi, while the Annunciation itself, a “tempera” work considered the apex of Gothic stylization, is by Martini.

1345 - Bishop Maurice de Sully - Notre-Dame de Paris

Jan 1, 1345

Originally commissioned by Bishop Maurice de Sully and constructed over a nearly 200 year period, the cathedral is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture, and is among the largest and most well-known church buildings in the world.

1350 - Huang Gongwang - Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains

Jan 1, 1350

Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains is one of the few surviving works by the painter Huang Gongwang, and it is considered to be among his greatest works. It was "carefully designed and developed in layers of wet washes and brush strokes, giving a convincing appearance of offhand but inspired organization and of spontaneous ink-play in detail"—two techniques with which Huang Gongwang is associated, later influencing such artists as Wang Yuanqi, one of the 'Six Masters of the Early Qing'.

1350 - Jacopo da Bologna - The Madrigals

Jan 2, 1350

Jacopo da Bologna was an Italian composer of the “Trecento,” the period sometimes known as the Italian ars nova. He concentrated mainly on madrigals (a part-song for several voices typically arranged in elaborate counterpoint and without instrumental accompaniment). Jacopo's ideal was "suave dolce melodia,” or sweet, clean melodies. https://youtu.be/UL5qIHhR744

1353 - Giovanni Boccaccio - The Decameron

Jan 1, 1353

Structured as a frame story containing 100 tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men sheltering in a secluded villa just outside Florence to escape the Black Death, which was afflicting the city. In addition to its literary value and widespread influence (for example on Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales), it provides a document of life at the time. Written in the vernacular of the Florentine language, it is considered a masterpiece of classical early Italian prose.

1358 - Yusuf I - The Alhambra

Jan 1, 1358

Constructed on a plateau that overlooks the city of Granada, the palace was built chiefly between 1238 and 1358, in the reigns of Ibn al-Aḥmar, founder of the Naṣrid dynasty, and his successors. The splendid decorations of the interior are ascribed to Yūsuf I (died 1354). It is now one of Spain's major tourist attractions, exhibiting the country's most significant and well known Islamic architecture. The Alhambra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the inspiration for many songs and stories.

1359 - al-Nasir Hasan - The Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan

Jan 1, 1359

The Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan is a massive Mamluk era mosque and madrassa located near the Citadel in Cairo, Egypt. Its construction began 1356, with work ending three years later. At the time of construction, the mosque was considered remarkable for its fantastic size and innovative architectural components.

1364 - Guillaume de Machaut - La Messe de Nostre Dame

Jan 1, 1364

Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our Lady) is a polyphonic mass composed before 1365 by French poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut. Widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of medieval music and of all religious music, it is historically notable as the earliest complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass attributable to a single composer. Like the other musical inclusions here, Machaut was a part of the musical movement known as the ars nova. https://youtu.be/mvIEA2dBKGA

1368 - Qur'an Frontispiece

Jan 1, 1368

Donated in 1369 by Sultan Al-Ashraf Sha'ban to the madrassa established by his mother, this representational work of illuminated text in the Islamic style is now kept at the National Library in Cairo.

1374 - Francesco Petrarch - Il Canzoniere

Jan 1, 1374

Il Canzoniere, also known as “Scattered Rhymes,” is a collection of poems by the Italian humanist, poet, and writer Petrarch (whose rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance, and who is often considered the founder of Humanism). Michael R. G. Spiller, in his work The Development of the Sonnet, calls Il Canzoniere “the single greatest influence on the love poetry of Renaissance Europe until well into the seventeenth century.”

1378 - Theophanes the Greek - Fresco of Christ Pantocrator in the Church of the Transfiguration in Novgorod

Jan 1, 1378

Considered a masterpiece of Russian art from the late Medieval era, and a fine example of the Novgorodian school of icon painting founded by Theophanes the Greek.

1381 - Jaime Serra - Descent into Hell

Jan 1, 1381

Information on Jaime Serra is hard to come by, but this depiction of Christ willingly entering the “mouth of Hell” with the promise of salvation became iconic regardless. It currently resides in the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain.

1389 - Geoffrey Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales

Jan 1, 1389

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales is revered as one of the most important works in English literature. Not only do readers from all time periods find it entertaining, but it is also a work that is open to a range of interpretations. Chaucer has been called the greatest English poet of all time, and the first to show what the language was truly capable of poetically.

1395 - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Jan 1, 1395

A late 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the best known Arthurian stories. It is an important poem in the romance genre, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his prowess, and it remains popular to this day in modern English renderings from J. R. R. Tolkien, Simon Armitage and others, as well as through film and stage adaptations.

1397 - Ashikaga Yoshimitsu - Kinkaku-ji Zen Buddhist Temple

Jan 1, 1397

Located in Kyoto, Japan, this temple is designated as a National Special Historic Site, a National Special Landscape, and a World Heritage Site. It was originally a villa called Kitayama-dai, but was purchased by Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in 1397 and transformed into the Kinkaku-ji complex. When Yoshimitsu died, the building was converted into a Zen temple by his son, according to his wishes.