The+Black+Plague

The **Bubonic Plague**, also known as Black Death, was one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in human history. The plague was most common in Europe from 1348 to 1350. The origins of the Bubonic Plague are not entirely known, though many believe that the plague started in China and traveled to Europe through the Silk Road and merchant ships. The plague claimed many lives; around 30-60 percent of Europe’s population was killed by it, heavily reducing the world’s population. The plague returned from time to time, though today the disease can easily be cured with penicillin.

The Black Plague arrived at a time when suffering and death was already rampant throughout Europe. France and England were in the middle of their Hundred Years War. Death was so common during the time that many were unable to be buried. Most common folks’ corpses were simply casted into a pit, and sometimes vagrants were paid to deliver the bodies. The Black Plague was highly contagious; an entire room of people can be contaminated within an hour if only one person had the plague. Worst of all, the Black Plague did not deliver a generous, peaceful death. It forms black boils and spots all over one’s body, and the pain is so excruciating that one begs for death. To complete these people’s misery, their faith restrained them from committing suicide, so if one were to be infected with the plague, he would either have to slowly and painfully die or have someone else kill him.

Needless to say, the Black Plague left a tremendous impact culturally and artistically. Many individuals at the time saw the Plague as God’s punishment for their sins. Many works of arts, such as the suffering of Jesus, the sorrows and joys of the Virgin, carry new themes: “The Art of Dying Well” and “The Triumph of Death”. These themes all seem to carry the recurrent message “Remember, you too will die.”

One famous artwork depicting the horrors of the 14th century is the **Master of the Triumph of Death**. This mural shows heaps of dead people, and devils and angels gather to carry their souls to heaven or hell. The artwork shows a rather accurate depiction of Black Death and its contagiousness. For example, hermits at the top left corner of the mural are unaffected by the plague, simply because they were remote from civilization. It is true that many people escaped Black Death by leaving society, as they will be less likely to be contaminated. Another example of the mural’s accuracy is its depiction of the ignorance from the nobles. At the bottom right corner of the mural, wealthy individuals calmly listen to music and enjoy life, oblivious to Death coming their way. Back in the 14th century, few nobles feared Black Death; they believed that Black Death was God’s way of punishing the sinners and common folks, and rich, powerful folks like them will be unaffected. Of course this belief was proven wrong when Black Death killed individuals of all status, regardless of wealth. One of the most touching scenes in the mural is its depiction of the emaciated, debilitated mendicants begging for Death to free their miseries. Devoid of wealth, purpose, and happiness, these tortured souls had little to live for. Their words appear on the scroll: “Since prosperity has completely deserted us, O Death, you who are the medicine for all pain, come to give us our last supper!”

As mentioned earlier, the Black Plague brought unimaginable suffering. As a result, even depictions of the suffering of Jesus were intensified to keep individuals faithful. In the past, Jesus was shown as a bulky, healthy man nailed to a cross. Crucifixion was already extreme enough for the folks back then to realize how much Jesus had suffered for their sins. However, with the Bubonic Plague and other cruel miseries rampant in Europe, people began to question how much Jesus really suffered. Individuals afflicted with the plague slowly began to believe that Jesus hadn’t really suffered all that much compared to them. As a result, artworks such as **Vesperbild** were created to convince the people that Jesus has truly suffered. With explicit, gruesome wounds and lacerations all over his body, Jesus now looked like someone who suffered even more than those with the Bubonic Plague. This grotesque depiction of Jesus was able to maintain belief of Jesus’s self-sacrifice.