Tbilisi Medical Academy
Pandemic and Art
The global distribution of Infectious Disease is known for the name Pandemic (from greece pan-all, demos-population) There have been a lots of examples of pandemic in history. For example: Plaque, Spanish Flue, Smallpox, Cholera, Leprosy, Malaria and etc. Pandemic did not just doom the lives of hundreds of people, but also had great impact on the development of economics and social sphere and all of this was perfectly reflected in art. In this case especially distinctive is Plaque-Black Death. (Citizens of Tournai, Burying the Dead During the Black Death of 1347-1352. Detail of a miniature from The Chronicles of Gilles Li Muisis, Nicolas Poussin - The Plague of Ashdod 1630-1631).
The challenge of pandemic is weird attire-mask, glasses, medical cloak and stick for distance. Probably the doctors used these attires when they were around the patient infected with the Black death (Dr. Schnabel von Rum -"Dr. Beak of Rome", engraving by Paul Furst, 1656)
