Virtual Curator Talk: “Before Vaccines: Art and the Plague in Italy” with Rachel McGarry

The bubonic plague struck Europe many times, most notoriously with the Black Death of 1347–51. Outbreaks decimated populations, ravaged cities, farms, and families, devastated economies, and reshaped societies. Governments were unprepared, hospitals overwhelmed, and the poor almost always suffered the most. With no cures or therapies, art and faith were invoked to protect and heal. And after each pandemic came to pass, miraculously, artists, architects, and writers got to work creating art to commemorate the lives lost and protect the living from future pestilences.This talk will look at the extraordinary art created during and after major outbreaks, focusing, in particular, on the plagues in Italy of 1575–76 and 1630–31.

Rachel McGarry, PhD, is Mia’s Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings.