{"type":"artobject","objectid":28983,"objectnumber":"y1963-36","sortnumber":"1963   36y","displaytitle":"The Pestilence of 1656","department":"European Painting and Sculpture ","classification":"Paintings","datebegin":1635,"dateend":1672,"datecomputed":1654,"daterange":"A.D. 1600-1700","displaydate":null,"medium":"Oil on canvas","dimensions":"76 × 99 cm (29 15/16 × 39 in.)\r\nframe: 96.8 × 119.7 × 5.4 cm (38 1/8 × 47 1/8 × 2 1/8 in.)","dimensionsproposed":"","creditline":"Museum purchase, Caroline G. Mather Fund","markings":null,"inscribed":null,"signed":"Interlocking Cs-representing the artist's initials on right rear haunch of bullock.","catalograisonne":null,"creditlinerepro":"","restrictions":null,"nowebuse":"False","secondaryobjectnumber":null,"campuscollections":"false","on_view":false,"accessionyear":"1963-01-01","newaccession":0,"titles":[{"title":"The Pestilence of 1656","titletype":"Primary Title","displayorder":1}],"makers":[{"id":6643,"displayname":"Carlo Coppola","displaydate":"Italian, active ca. 1635–1672","datebegin":1635,"dateend":1672,"prefix":null,"suffix":null,"role":"Artist","displaymaker":"Carlo Coppola, Italian, active ca. 1635–1672","displayorder":1}],"depicted":[],"texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"Mirell Gallery, Miami (in 1963; sold to Princeton University Art Museum).","remarks":"Migrated from 9.35 12/2013"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"Coppola’s <em>The Pestilence of 1656</em> is an exceptionally grim portrayal of Naples’s most devastating bout with the black death. The narrative unfolds in a metaphorical battlefield covered with bodies and devoid of any suggestion of divine intercession in aid of the sick. Poignant details include an infant nursing from his dead mother’s breast and a figure whose face is covered with a cloth—speaking to the odor of the decaying bodies as well as the fear of contracting the plague through putrid air, a false but widespread contemporary belief.","remarks":"K3 Rotation July 2018 (The Bubonic Plague in Early Modern Italy) "},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Special Exhibition","textentryhtml":"This exceptionally grim portrayal of Naples’s devastating bout with the bubonic plague in 1656 is set outside the city walls in a metaphorical battlefield covered with bodies and devoid of any suggestion of divine intercession. The grotesque blisters and blackened limbs that were often manifestations of the plague presented challenges for contemporary artists, who were expected to show restraint and decorum in their works. Instead, Coppola depicted bloated bodies with varying colors to suggest different states of decomposition. In the foreground, an infant tries to nurse from his dead mother’s breast; nearby, a figure tending to the dead covers his face with a cloth, alluding both to the odor of the decaying bodies as well as to the fear of contracting the plague through putrid air, a false but widespread belief at the time.","remarks":"States of Health"}],"media":[{"id":207082,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2018_44810","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"PUAM photo"}],"hasimage":"true","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"\"Summary of Acquisitions, 1963,\" <i>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University</i>, vol. 23, no. 1 (1964): p. 29-31.","citation":"\"Summary of Acquisitions, 1963,\" <i>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University</i>, vol. 23, no. 1 (1964): p. 29-31., p. 29","date":1964,"id":545,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774404"},{"boilertext":"Gauvin A Bailey; Sheila Barker,<EM>&nbsp;Hope and Healing, Paintings in Italy in a Time of Plague 1500-1800</EM>, (Worcester, MA: Worchester Art Museum, 2005).","citation":"Gauvin A Bailey; Sheila Barker,<EM>&nbsp;Hope and Healing, Paintings in Italy in a Time of Plague 1500-1800</EM>, (Worcester, MA: Worchester Art Museum, 2005)., p. 229","date":2005,"id":547,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/58677626"},{"boilertext":"B. B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, <EM>Census of pre-nineteenth-century Italian paintings in North American collections</EM>, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972).","citation":"B. B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, <EM>Census of pre-nineteenth-century Italian paintings in North American collections</EM>, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972)., p. 55","date":1972,"id":572,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/488066386"}],"exhibitions":[{"exhibitionid":3617,"citation":"States of Health: Visualizing Illness and Healing (November 2, 2019 –Sunday, February 2, 2020)","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"2019-11-02","enddate":"2020-02-02","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/3617"}],"geography":[{"displaygeography":"Place made: Europe, Naples","code":"Place made","continent":"Europe","subcontinent":null,"country":null,"region":null,"state":null,"city":"Naples","county":null,"subregion":null,"locale":null,"locus":null,"river":null,"excavation":null,"geoname":"http://www.geonames.org/maps/google_40.856_14.246.html","location":{"lat":"","lon":""}}],"terms":[{"id":2053145,"term":"oil paintings","aatid":300033799,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2031625,"term":"Italian","aatid":300111198,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2055657,"term":"figures (representations)","aatid":300189808,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2101160,"term":"wagons","aatid":300215710,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2032030,"term":"Baroque","aatid":300021147,"termtype":"Period / Style"},{"id":2135437,"term":"deaths","aatid":300151836,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2052977,"term":"paintings","aatid":300033618,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2055694,"term":"landscapes (representations)","aatid":300015636,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2171344,"term":"canvas","aatid":null,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2167780,"term":"oil paint","aatid":300015050,"termtype":"Materials"}],"classifications":[{"id":2052977,"classification":"paintings"},{"id":2053145,"classification":"oil paintings"}],"cultures":[],"cultureterms":[{"id":2031625,"culture":"Italian"}],"periods":[],"periodterms":[{"id":2032030,"period":"Baroque"}],"attribute_groups":[{"id":2199321,"term":"European Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199338,"term":"Nazi-era gaps","termtype":"Provenance & Cultural Heritage"}],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"frame","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"96.83"},{"element":"frame","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"119.69"},{"element":"frame","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"5.39"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"76.00"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"99.00"}],"packages":[{"packageid":210962,"name":"Z_JS European On View 10 years"},{"packageid":182999,"name":"image_descriptions_eps_painitings"},{"packageid":181969,"name":"CRS_2020_ANT240/HUM240_03_23"},{"packageid":181971,"name":"CRS_2020_ANT240/HUM240_03_25"},{"packageid":194314,"name":"PUAM_States of Health"},{"packageid":246533,"name":"EPS Provenance Nazi-era gaps"},{"packageid":196672,"name":"CRS_2020_ElenaFratto_too big"},{"packageid":212549,"name":"2022_STC209A/EGR209A/MUS 209A_03_23"},{"packageid":236084,"name":"2023_FRS127_10_03"},{"packageid":218868,"name":"2022_FRS127_10_04"},{"packageid":123,"name":"Web_Provenance"},{"packageid":276252,"name":"Nazi Era Sept 2025 list for web"},{"packageid":181527,"name":"CRS_2020_WRI163_03_30"},{"packageid":184819,"name":"web_SOH_1"},{"packageid":207234,"name":"SAB_Gala2021"},{"packageid":182210,"name":"CRS_2020_SLA368/HUM368/GHP368/RES368_04_20"},{"packageid":181717,"name":"CRS_2020_ART363_04_21"}],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2018_44810"],"displaymaker":"Carlo Coppola, Italian, active ca. 1635–1672","displayculture":null,"displayperiod":null,"caption":"Carlo Coppola (Italian, active ca. 1635–1672), The Pestilence of 1656. Oil on canvas; 76 × 99 cm, 96.8 × 119.7 × 5.4 cm (frame). Museum purchase, Caroline G. Mather Fund (y1963-36)","captionhtml":"Carlo Coppola (Italian, active ca. 1635–1672), <i>The Pestilence of 1656</i>. Oil on canvas; 76 × 99 cm, 96.8 × 119.7 × 5.4 cm (frame). Museum purchase, Caroline G. Mather Fund (y1963-36)","published_date":"2026-02-11 10:13:19.876253","campusart":[{"campuscollections":"false","campusart":0,"neighborhood":null,"lat":null,"lon":null}],"extended_content":true}