Article
Teach with Collections: Carlo Coppola, The Pestilence
Carlo Coppola's The Pestilence of 1656 is an exceptionally grim portrayal of Naples's most devastating bout with the black death. The narrative unfolds on a metaphorical battlefield covered with bodies and devoid of any suggestion of divine intercession in aid of the sick. Poignant details include an infant nursing from his dead mother's breast, and a figure with a cloth covering his face‚—a detail speaking to the odor of the decaying bodies as well as the fear of contracting the plague through putrid air, a false but widespread contemporary belief.
Conversation prompts
What are the relationships between the living and the sick or dead in this painting?
How did Coppola use contrasts in light and color to move the viewer's gaze across the composition?
What are some of the differences in the ways Coppola depicted the bodies of the living versus the bodies of the dead?
Conversation prompts
What are the relationships between the living and the sick or dead in this painting?
How did Coppola use contrasts in light and color to move the viewer's gaze across the composition?
What are some of the differences in the ways Coppola depicted the bodies of the living versus the bodies of the dead?
