Impact of Black Death on Art

Paper Summary:

This paper relates that Renaissance painters expressed a much more developed sense of emotion in their art that was due to the hardships that were created by the Black Death. The paper focuses on Andrea Mantegna's "Lamentation Over the Dead Christ" (c. 1490), Pieter Brueghel's "The Triumph of Death" (c. 1562) and Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden of Delights" (c. 1480) and, through an analysis of these works, shows how Renaissance artists drew from emerging artistic techniques as well as the terrible experiences of the Black Death to create art that was able to evoke emotions effectively.

From the Paper:

"During the Renaissance, the experience of the Black Death had made an indelible mark upon societies across Europe. After all, when it first swept across the continent in the fourteenth century, it killed between a third and two thirds of the entire population. One of the results of this was that death became a central theme in everyday life. People were constantly surrounded by the fact that any day they could fall ill and die a quick and painful death. The effects of this constant living with death can be seen in the changes in the kind of art that was produced during this period. Whereas paintings from the medieval period presented their subjects in a stiff and artificial style, Renaissance painters strove to express the profound pathos of their lives through a much more realistic style."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Adams, L.S. (2001) Italian Renaissance Art. London: Calmann and King Ltd.
• Kelly, J. (2005) The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time. New York: Harper Collins.
• Snyder, J. (2003). Northern Renaissance: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575. New York: Lawrence King Publishing.

More papers on Impact of Black Death on Art:

• Term Paper # 145842 : "Implications of the Black Death"
• Term Paper # 93461 : "Black Death"
• Cause and Effect Essay # 3380 : "The Black Death"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: