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How to Read Paintings: The Triumph of Death by Buonamico Buffalmacco
A monumental fresco that explores medieval beliefs in death and the afterlife
The Camposanto in Pisa, Italy, is a fascinating place. Whilst so much attention is given to the famous “Leaning Tower”, only a short distance away is one of the most beautiful cemeteries in all of the world.
The beginnings of the cemetery are auspicious. “Campo Santo” can be literally translated as “holy field” after a shipload of sacred soil from Calvary, or Golgotha — the site of Jesus’ crucifixion — was brought back to Pisa and used as the foundation earth for the cemetery. This symbolic act turned the burial ground into a divine field, with the reputed legend that any body buried in it would dissolve in only twenty-four hours.
The Camposanto is built on a long rectangle surrounded by Gothic cloisters, with archways that lead to a lawned area in the centre. Inside the cloisters, under cover to protect them from the elements, are numerous Italian tombs and Roman sarcophagi from antiquity.
On the walls of the cloister are a series of frescoes. Originally painted in around the 1350s, these wall paintings were meant partly as decoration and partly as images for contemplation. They were badly damaged during the Second World War when a bomb strike resulted in a fire and the collapse of the timber-and-lead roof. Restoration work has been virtually continuous since then, concluding in 2018 with the re-installation of one of the great paintings of the Camposanto: the Triumph of Death by Buonamico Buffalmacco.
The Triumph of Death is an enormous fresco, measuring some fifteen metres in width. It is an image full of movement and drama, a swirling cycle of life and death. The overall subject of the work is the tussle over the souls of the dead by angels and devils. As such, it gives us a compelling insight into how death — and what lay beyond it — was seen…
