Plate Pestya8 from Svartedauen

What it is

This print by Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen, made in 1901 for his book Svartedauen, shows a cloaked, hooded figure standing on a boulder along a rocky coastline, holding a staff topped with a cross-like shape, with birds flying overhead and the sea beyond.

Why it matters

Kittelsen often personified the Black Death as a hooded figure traveling the land, a common folkloric image used to make the disease's spread feel like the work of an unseen traveler. This reflects how, centuries after the pandemic, people used art and story to process and remember its devastation across Europe and Norway.

Look closer

• Why might the artist choose to show the plague as a traveling figure rather than showing illness directly?
• What might the cross-topped staff symbolize?
• How does the calm landscape contrast with the idea of the plague's destructive power?