(Image 4) Here, the Virgin Mary is seen protecting the people, most of them praying, under her large cloak from the arrows shot by angels from the sky. This painting, and many more like it, shows the conception most people held, that the plague was set on the people by God himself, as a punishment. It also shows that most of the people saved under the cloak are praying, religious people.
In many of these misericordia images, pictures of Mary as a merciful savior, the people she takes under her cloak are both rich and poor, from all social classes
Memento Mori, a phrase literally meaning ‘remember you are going to die’, became a common part of life during and after the Black Death, and therefore it also became an important part of art. The plague caused the death of one-third to even half of the population of Europe during the time of the Black Death, and although the Black Death itself had
…show more content…
Previously, the Catholic Church had answered the people’s questions about the death and the afterlife, as it had also answered basically every question the people had had. At the time of the plague, however, the dissatisfaction with the Church allowed the people to begin thinking about death by themselves, seeing its consequences with their own eyes as people died every day. The people were curious about the world that the Church, the Pope and the plague had previously hid from them.
The idea of every person as equal at the face of death was common to the time during and especially after the Black Death. It can be seen to have influenced artwork to quite a large extent, and for a long time after the Black Death. Artistic themes concentrating on this theme of death being equal for everyone became very popular and widespread after the plague struck. These include the danse macabre, or the Dance of Death, as well as the pictures of Three Living meet the Three