Existing comment:
The Plague
The so-called Morbetto ("little plague") belongs to a group of designs that Raphael conceived exclusively for publication in print. The macabre scene -- filled with the dying bodies of humans and animals -- depicts an episode from Virgil's Aeneid, in which Aeneas, leader of the plague-stricken Trojans, is warned in a dream to continue his fateful journey to Italy to fulfill his destiny and save his people. This plate, made in Urbino some twenty years after the publication of the print, is the only known derivation in maiolica, perhaps due to the engraving's disturbing imagery. Faithfully following his model, the maiolica painter also transcribed the Latin quotation that helped erudite viewers identify the subject of the composition. It reads in translation: "They relinquished sweet life and dragged their sick bodies" (The Aeneid, book III). |