There have been plagues throughout recorded history, but none were of the magnitude nor had the far reaching effects that the Black Plague had. Its namesake came from symptomatic hemorrhages that turned black. Though most people associate the Black Death with the middle ages, forms of the Bubonic Plague have been known in China as early as 224 BC. The Black Death embarked on a journey as an epidemic in the Gobi Desert in the 1320s. By 1400, China's population of 125 million had been reduced to 90 million. Southwest Asia and Europe followed suite with strikingly similar losses in their population base. In 1347, the Kipchaks who were nomads from the Euro-Asian Steppe, were thought to deliberately infect a European city with the disease. The Kipchaks had laid siege to a Gen

Surprisingly, in all the references there was little to be found referring to the Arts and the beginning of the Renaissance Period. One volume of recommended reading titled Plague and Pestilence in Literature and Art, Raymond Crawfurd, Clarendon Press, 1914 was referenced, but was not available. Undoubtedly, there were effects that were negative and positive. Negative in meaning that the depiction of death became more morbid after the Plague. A fair example can be found on a wall of the cemetery close to Camposanto (Pisa Cathedral) in Pisa. Like Pieter Bruegel, The Elder's painting, "Triumph of Death", 1562 (attached), this fresco by Francesco Traini, is also called "Triumph of Death", 1350 (Roy T. Matthew and F. DeWitt Platt, The Western Humanities, Second Edition, Mayfield Publishing Company, 1994). Death relinquished its identity as an intangible skeleton, to become a vision of the macabre. A black flowing shroud with a scythe for gathering souls. Death no longer took on the stately representation of regalia worn by knights and ladies of the court. Post-Black Death art during the Renaissance also depicts a higher moral standard. For example, Giovanni del Biondo's vision of John the Evangelist, renders him overwhelming Avarice, Pride, and Vain-glory. The direct effect the Plague had was to clear away the blurring veils where Gothic Art had taken a foothold. Humanity was brought back to earth by their own mortality. The Renaissance was a reawakening, resurrection, or renewal of reality showing life in a more pragmatic nature.

The state of medical knowledge had in truth, caused more harm than repair. The crucial role of rodents and fleas were never identified until centuries later. Wild theories ranged from the blaming of Jews who were thought to be ritually poisoning wells to the belief that the sickness was carried on the warm, moist southerly breezes. Treatments included the practice of bleeding patients to release evil spirits. The wound more often resulted in another viscous opening for the disease to enter. One physician maintained that the disruptiveness of malo

Some topics in this essay:
Starting Sicily, Protestant Church, Clement VI, America Mortality, Black Death, English Parliament, Flagellants Flagellants, Catholic Church, Gothic Art, Publishing Company, black death, lower class, triumph death, medical knowledge,