Desolation:

    The Triumph of Death is a medieval painting attributed to Francesco Traini, who lived during the time of the Black Death, which killed tens of millions in Europe (30% to 60% of the population) in just a few years span. In the painting, a costumed group on groomed horses comes upon three open coffins containing corpses. With the riders recoiling from the sight and smell, a hermit displays a scroll reading, “If your mind be well aware, keeping here your view attentive, your vainglory will be vanquished and you will see pride eliminated.”1  So, although the painting is morbid, it does offer a remedy for at least one thing that can make death a terrible prospect.

    Desolation is a simpler painting than The Triumph of Death but did represent a disciplined effort for a new painter. Completed on April 12, 2020 as the Coronavirus was sweeping through the United States, killing an increasing number of people daily (around 1500 reported on that day), the painting features a mouse leaning over an empty pan atop a ghostly rag to evoke the ephemeral. Out in the world, supply chains were breaking down, grocery stores were desolate, and people worried about what they would lose. If I were to accompany this painting with a scroll akin to that in The Triumph of Death, it might read, “If your mind be well aware, keeping your view attentive, your desires will be lessened along with your fears.” In prosperity, this may seem like an unattractive trade-off. But in lean times, its value is starkly apparent.

 1. Janson, H. W., Janson’s History of Art (New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007), 460.