Artist: Michael Sweerts (1618-1664 CE)
Title: Plague in an Ancient City (c. 1652-1654 CE.)
Medium/Size: Oil on canvas. 46 3/4 × 67 1/4 in. (118.75 × 170.8 cm)
Flemish painter Michael Sweerts was an active artist in Rome, instead of in his native country of Flanders (Belgium). He garnered fame for both his genre scenes and portraits. However, no one could have foreseen or anticipated the power and grandeur of his greatest work, Plague in an Ancient City. Sweerts completed his work shortly after an epidemic swept through Rome in 1648, known as the Plague of Cyprian. Art critics are in dispute over whether or not the painting represents that epidemic, or just the devastating effects of plagues in general.
No one can argue that the ravages of the plague are apparent in the painting’s foreground. At the same time, it could be argued, that this painting could be more of a reflection on the social, cultural, and religious beliefs of the time (i.e. the priest in the shrine holding a lantern). Upon closer inspection, a figure in the darkened background illustrates a priest making a gesture which mirrors that of the man in the center of painting. The priest, inside of a shrine, holds a light for those surrounding him. In addition, it could be assumed that the painting may be a reflection of Sweerts' own crisis of faith at the time he painted it.
Sweerts' use of dramatic lighting, in the way of cool colors and transparent glazes, further emphasizes the horrendous devastation brought about by plagues and epidemics. There is an amazing contrast between light and dark in his work, which adds to its overall effect.
Shortly after completing the painting, Sweerts left on a journey to the East, eventually dying in 1664 in Goa, India, in what had been speculated to be a "mysterious death".
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