Images of Plague and Pestilence: Iconography and Iconology Book

Since the late fourteenth century, European artists created an extensive body of images, in paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, and other media, about the horrors of disease and death, as well as hope and salvation. This interdisciplinary study on disease in metaphysical context is the first general overview of plague art written from an art historical standpoint. The book selects masterpieces created by Raphael, Titian, Tintoretto, Rubens, Van Dyck, and Poussin, and includes minor works dating from the fourteenth to twentieth centuries. It highlights the most important innovative artistic works that originated during the Renaissance and the Catholic Reformation. This study of the changing iconographic patterns and their iconological interpretations opens window to the past.

Booknews

Blending the history of art and the history of medicine, Boeckl (art, U. of Nebraska) explores artistic representations of epidemic disease from the 14th to the 20th centuries, with an emphasis on the Black Death of the Middle Ages. She presents an overview of various sources of plague iconography, investigates in depth the meaning of the images of a few significant paintings, and highlights the most important and innovative works originating during the Renaissance and Catholic Reformation. Plentifully illustrated, in b&w. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)