Here, the Pharaoh and one of his courtiers is smitten by boils for their sins of oppressing the Israelite slaves who the Egyptians claimed were swarming like insects. The manuscript was commissioned by Jews in Catalonia to use at their annual Passover meal. This image of one of the 10 plagues brought down on the guilty Egyptians comes from a 14th-Century illuminated Haggadah. The plague punishment narrative also forms part of the story of the liberation of the Jewish people from Egypt, retold by Jewish communities every year at Passover. Dying of the plague was seen not only as God’s punishment for wickedness but as a sign that the victim would endure an eternity of suffering in the world to come. Today, at a time of Covid-19, these historical images offer us a chance to reflect on these questions, and to ask our own.Īt a time when few people could read, dramatic images with a compelling storyline were created to captivate people, and impress them with the immensity of God’s power to punish disobedience. Through their creativity, artists have wrestled with questions about the fragility of life, the relationship to the divine, as well as the role of caregivers. In modern times, artists have created self-portraits to show how they could endure and resist the epidemics unfolding around them, reclaiming a sense of agency. Generating strong emotions and showing superior strength overcoming the epidemic were ways to protect and bring solace to suffering societies. Their task was to encourage empathy with plague victims, who were later associated with Christ himself, in order to exalt and incentivise the courageous caregiver. The centuries that followed brought a new role for the artist. In Europe, art depicting the Black Death was initially seen as a warning of punishment that the plague would bring to sinners and societies. Throughout most of history, artists have depicted epidemics from the profoundly religious framework within which they lived. Through these artworks, they have recast the plague as something not quite as amorphous, unknowable, or terrifying. Their interpretation of the horrors they witnessed has changed radically over time, but what has remained constant is the artists’ desire to capture the essence of an epidemic. As their communities grappled with an invisible enemy, artists have often tried to make sense of the random destruction brought by plagues.
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