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Italian Plague Images
Jasmin Johnson Dear Colleagues,
In the oratory of the priory of S.Francesco in Perugia, there is a splendid gonfalon (banner) depicting the protection of the city from plague by the virgin. While I am aware that this is a common enough depiction, the banner is a particularly fine and detailed one, with, amongst other memorable images, the depiction of two tiny children being transported out of the plague threatened city in wickerwork panniers attached to a long suffering donkey- clearly a reference to the flight into Egypt. However, because S.Francesco is very much still a working priory, there were no images available for sale and no information about the banner or the artist.
Does anyone know if any image of this particular gonfalon exists either online or in traditional published form? Is anything known of the artist who created the piece?
I would also be interested in receiving any information about published sources on similar images (not necessarily just gonfalone) depicting the protection of Italian towns from plague by patron saints, particularly any dating from c1300-c1500.
Perhaps I should conclude with thanks in the names of those two notable plague saints, Rocco & Sebastiano :o)
Jasmin Johnson
Reference:
Q: Italian Plague Images. In: ArtHist.net, Jul 11, 2003 (accessed Feb 27, 2022),
<https://arthist.net/archive/25746>.