The plague of 1630

The Plague of 1630, also known by the alternative title The Virgin Appears to the Plague Victims, is a pictorial work by Antonio Zanchi that decorates one of the walls of the staircase of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice. The work consists of two large canvases, separated by a pre-existing architectural pilaster. Even in the duplicity of the canvases, imposed by the state of the places, the composition is unitary (and, as we will say, illusionistically also incorporates the real pilaster).

On the wall facing the work of Zanchi appears a second composition (identical in size and shape), due to Pietro Blacks, depicting The Madonna saves Venice from the plague, pendant of the Plague of the painter of Este.

The events depicted in the paintings on the scale of the School concern the frightening plague that struck Venice in 1630.