The Black Death (Woodcut)

What it is

This is a black-and-white woodcut in an ornate bordered frame, titled The Black Death. It was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons in January 2013 under the uploader's name old, and no artist is recorded. A skeletal figure with a scythe stands on a landscape. A horse-drawn cart piled with skulls is driven by a horned beast, and many people lie fallen on the ground in the foreground. The image has no written description, so its origin and date are unknown.

Why it matters

Images of death with a scythe, skulls and fallen bodies became a common way to show plague in later European art. This woodcut is likely a later depiction of the Black Death rather than a record made during the 1346 to 1353 pandemic. It reveals how later people imagined the disease, and it shows the strong symbols that were used to show mass death.

Look closer

• Which symbols does the artist use to show death, and what does the horned beast add to the scene?
• Who might the people on the ground be, and does the picture show them as individuals?
• Why might a later artist choose a dramatic image like this rather than a record of how the pandemic actually spread?