Victory of Death is a wooden oil painting created by Peter Brugell in 156 1, which is now in the Prado Art Museum in Madrid, Spain. The epidemic of the Black Death in Europe in the 0/4th century A.D./KLOC-was basically recognized by modern scientific research as an epidemic of bubonic plague caused by a pathogenic bacterium called Yersinia pestis.
The spread of this pathogen is mainly rat fleas on mice. Some historians believe that the Black Death began in China or Central Asia in the1420s and1430s.
In the following years, it was taken to Crimea in southern Russia by businessmen and soldiers. According to modern estimates, the Black Death in the14th century killed 45% to 60% of Europeans and 25 million to 50 million people in Europe in almost four years. From the painting, we can see that human beings are afraid of this plague and think that death is coming to harvest life on earth.
In early 2020, the novel coronavirus epidemic brought us back to the days when everyone was afraid of SARS in 2003.
In fact, in the long history of mankind, we have encountered countless plague disasters, some of which are particularly serious and have a great impact on future generations of mankind, such as the Black Death, smallpox, influenza and SARS. These plagues are infectious diseases caused by some highly pathogenic microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses.
Today, we try to use some famous medical paintings to review these infectious diseases experienced by human beings. We can find that the reaction of human society after the outbreak of plague is always strikingly similar.
For the emergence of new diseases, human attitudes are indifferent first, then inexplicable panic, coupled with discrimination against infected people, when the epidemic develops steadily, it will produce a morbid "adaptability" and even a self-deception optimism. The epidemic was finally lifted, and people gloated over the victory of mankind, thinking that they could sit back and relax and restore their old lives.