Art and epidemic in early modern period

Abstract

In the early modern era the images showing the plague were intended not only to depict the lesions on the bodies of people or the dramatic course of the epidemic in society, but also to convince viewers that Church and state authorities largely reign over the scourge, affecting thousands of people. Impressive lazarets served not only to isolate the sick, but also manifested the state's concern for their fate, and at the same time concealed their suffering from a healthy part of society. Churches and monuments commemorating pestilences proclaimed that God's Mercy had freed people from epidemic oppression many times.