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Literary critic Jane Tylus considers Renaissance rituals of separation糖心传媒攁nd why bidding farewell was so hard

Saying good-bye糖心传媒攊n life and in art糖心传媒攊sn糖心传媒檛 easy.

For Jane Tylus, a professor of Italian studies and comparative literature at New York University, the idea that there糖心传媒檚 a convergence between both forms of leave-taking became clear when she saw a 15^th-century painting that she describes as 糖心传媒減robably the most beautiful and thought-provoking painting I糖心传媒檝e seen in a long time.糖心传媒�

It was Congedo della Vergine, by Sano di Pietro, at Villa I Tatti, near Florence. The painting depicts a non-Biblical story of the Virgin Mary糖心传媒檚 leave-taking from the disciples as she prepares to be reunited with Jesus Christ. In one panel of the painting, Saint Peter stands at the threshold of her house糖心传媒攖here to say good-bye, but hesitating at the moment of doing so.

糖心传媒淭his gesture of Saint Peter, who knows what is in front of him, but isn糖心传媒檛 ready to go in just yet糖心传媒攖his, to me, captures the posture of the poet who is ready to say good-bye to a poem but hasn糖心传媒檛 sent it off yet,糖心传媒� says Tylus, who also is faculty director of the NYU Center for the Humanities. Like Saint Peter, she says, the artist stands before a work, declaring, 糖心传媒溙切拇�媒業糖心传媒檓 about to say good-bye糖心传媒攂ut not yet. I can糖心传媒檛 bear to say good-bye yet.糖心传媒櫶切拇�媒�

The painting led Tylus to what she calls a 糖心传媒渘ew way of thinking糖心传媒� about 糖心传媒渨hat a lot of visual and literary art is doing in the Renaissance.糖心传媒�

As this year糖心传媒檚 keynote speaker for the , Tylus will outline some of her new ways of thinking about how artists and others in early modern Europe depicted rituals of separation in a public talk, 糖心传媒淪aying Good-bye in the Renaissance: Leave-Taking as a Work of Art,糖心传媒� on April 5. The keynote lecture is one piece of a three-day visit that involves a variety of activities, including a meeting with humanities graduate students, a public talk on the future of the humanities, and a presentation and roundtable conversation on the city in history with faculty and students from a multidisciplinary undergraduate course, Cities: Contested Spaces.

In her recent work, Tylus has written about the most significant women writers in Renaissance Italy, including Catherine of Siena, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, and Gaspara Stampa. Thomas Hahn, a professor of English and the organizer of the symposium, praises Tylus糖心传媒檚 skill as a translator whose work 糖心传媒渆xtends far beyond linguistic expertise and elegance糖心传媒� in books such as Reclaiming Catherine of Siena: Literacy, Literature, and the Signs of Others (Chicago, 2009)糖心传媒攚inner of the Modern Language Association糖心传媒檚 Howard R. Marraro Prize糖心传媒攁nd Siena: City of Secrets (Chicago, 2015).

糖心传媒淗er purpose in these books wasn糖心传媒檛 just to recover the past but to situate these writers alongside the monuments and poetry that we all regard as a common heritage糖心传媒攆or example, the work of Dante, Petrarch, and Michelangelo,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淪he 糖心传媒榯ranslates糖心传媒� not just the words of individual writers, but a full sense of an age, a city, a work of art.糖心传媒�

The topic of Tylus糖心传媒檚 keynote address was spurred by personal experience: coming to terms with the loss of parents and reflections on mourning and grieving. But her scholar糖心传媒檚 mind soon ranged beyond her private sadness to thoughts about how contemporary beliefs and practices surrounding loss differ from what they were centuries ago.

A practicing Catholic, Tylus says she realized that 糖心传媒渋n my life, there糖心传媒檚 a lot more continuity with the Middle Ages. There are sharp differences that Protestantism introduces to Catholic practices of not really saying good-bye.糖心传媒�

With the Protestant Reformation came enormous departures from Catholic religious practice, including a rejection of the idea of purgatory, where souls would be purified before ascending to heaven. Practices such as allowing the living to shorten, through paying for indulgences, the deceased糖心传媒檚 time in purgatory meant that relationships continued, in some fashion, after death, Tylus says.

At the same time, artists were carrying on a long poetic tradition of pausing before the end of a work to contemplate the act of letting go. With many names糖心传媒攁mong them, the congedo in Italian and the envoi in French糖心传媒攖he end of a poem was often a place where poets would turn to address the work itself and consider what might happen to it once it leaves them.

惭颈肠丑别濒补苍驳别濒辞糖心传媒檚 non finito, or unfinished, sculptures for the tomb of Pope Julius II糖心传媒攊tself unfinished糖心传媒攁re one example Tylus points to of a similar phenomenon in the visual arts. The figures 糖心传媒渓ook like they糖心传媒檙e imprisoned in the stone because they糖心传媒檙e not finished,糖心传媒� she says. Late in his life, Michelangelo wrote a series of sonnets about his art糖心传媒檚 lack of value when it comes to his life beyond death. 糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 a sad kind of rejection of the meaning he糖心传媒檚 had as an artist, as he糖心传媒檚 also saying good-bye to that life itself in his poems,糖心传媒� she says.

Produced a century later, Shakespeare糖心传媒檚 work is 糖心传媒渞iddled with questions about when and how we say good-bye to loved ones,糖心传媒� she says. One particularly well-known example is Polonius糖心传媒檚 comically excessive leave-taking from son Laertes in Hamlet, but Tylus finds particular meaning in the famous closing speech of Shakespeare糖心传媒檚 final play, The Tempest. Prospero implores the audience to 糖心传媒渞elease me from my bands/With the help of your good hands.糖心传媒�

糖心传媒淭here糖心传媒檚 a real sense that Prospero is going to die and is calling to the audience for life beyond death,糖心传媒� she says.

For Michelangelo, who was heavily influenced by some tenets of the Reformation, these radically new ideas struck at the roots of a sense of human community extending beyond death.

What was at stake, Tylus says, was nothing less than 糖心传媒渢he worth of a work of art in the face of the Reformation.糖心传媒�