Maria met Christus tussen de heilige Rochus en de heilige Sebastiaan 1633 - 1647

Cornelis Bloemaert's engraving shows Mary with Christ between Saint Roch and Saint Sebastian and was made in Rome sometime in the first half of the 17th century. The work speaks to the social devastation wrought by recurrent waves of plague in Europe at this time. Note how Roch and Sebastian flank the Virgin and Child. They were invoked for their supposed power to intercede against the pestilence. Sebastian, pierced by arrows, and Roch, displaying the buboes on his leg, serve as reminders of the body's vulnerability. They are positioned within a carefully constructed visual and theological hierarchy, subordinate to Mary as Queen of Heaven. To understand the cultural context of this print, a historian would examine plague narratives, devotional images, and the writings of religious orders in Rome. Only then can we grasp how Bloemaert's image tapped into contemporary anxieties and beliefs. In this way, the meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional setting.