Illness, plagues, and pandemics in art

An overview of global artistic responses to epidemics and pandemics.

13th century to today

Art throughout the world often encoded the impact of diseases on people.

Lost History: the terracotta sculpture of Djenne Djenno

By Dr. Kristina Van Dyke, Dr. Steven Zucker

Are these little-understood figures representations of diseased people, or an attempt to ward off illness?

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The Black Death

By Louisa Woodville

Rats spread plague throughout the streets of Europe. Society turned upside down—but the Renaissance lay ahead.

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Giovanni Bellini, San Giobbe Altarpiece

Giovanni Bellini, <em>San Giobbe Altarpiece</em>

By Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker

With its decorative marble and golden light, this space looks a lot like San Marco. Shall we? St. Francis beckons.

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Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece

By Dr. Sally Hickson

Demons as haunting as these could be a sign of delirium, or just another of Grünewald’s otherworldly creations.

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Aztec art and feasts for the dead

By Dr. Joshua Fitzgerald

In 1520, smallpox raged among the Mexica during the month of Tepeilhuitl when they would normally be making and eating sacred art made of dough.

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Virgin of Guadalupe

By Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank

The Virgin miraculously appeared to a Nahua man in 1531, and has since been the object of intense devotion.

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Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, Napoleon Bonaparte Visiting the Pest House in Jaffa

Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, <em>Napoleon Bonaparte Visiting the Pest House in Jaffa</em>

By Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker

Napoleon masterfully manipulated his image, and this painting meant for Parisian audiences is pure propaganda.

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Mestre Valentim, Passeio Publico, Rio de Janeiro

By Dr. Rachel Zimmerman

The first public park in Brazil and a major urban planning commission awarded to an artist of African descent.

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War Shirt (Upper Missouri River)

By Dr. John P. Lukavic, Denver Art Museum

Studying art during a pandemic, a rare early Plains war shirt, and cultural resilience in the face of disease.

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The Emerald Buddha and pandemics

By Dr. Melody Rod-ari

In the 19th century, King Rama II turned to Thailand’s protective deity, the Emerald Buddha, to stop the spread of cholera.

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Masami Teraoka, American Kabuki

Masami Teraoka, <em>American Kabuki</em>

By Dr. Steven Zucker, Emma Acker at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Teraoka draws on Japan's brilliant history of art and kabuki theatre to creating beauty from heart-rending tragedy.

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Sue Coe, Aids won’t wait, the enemy is here not in Kuwait

By Dr. Beth Harris, Monica Zimmerman, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

An artist asks: war or healthcare?

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Felix Gonzalez-Torres, “Untitled” (billboard of an empty bed)

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, <em>“Untitled” (billboard of an empty bed)</em>

By Dr. Thomas Folland

Gonzalez-Torres evokes absent bodies in his works, which bring gay identity and the AIDS crisis into public view.

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