Black Death Iconography Was The Inspiration Of The Grim Reaper

Ranked seventh in the list of facts about the Black Death is that its iconography was the inspiration of the Grim Paper. The concept of the "Angel of Death" was deeply rooted in European society during the Middle Ages. The morbidity, terror, and misery experienced during the bubonic plague, on the other hand, transformed how the typical person saw death. Death became a prominent subject in art as disease and death became a harsh reality during the plague epidemic. During and during the Black Death in Europe, the Danse Macabre, or "Dance of Death," became a popular motif in art. It featured men and women from various walks of life "dancing" with skeletal figures that represented death.

The Grim Reaper, a skeletal figure dressed in a black hooded cloak and wielding a scythe (an instrument consisting of a long curving blade affixed at an angle to a long handle), was possibly the most prominent image in the iconography. The Grim Reaper's black cloak could have been interpreted as a sign of bad luck as well as wicked forces. His tall, oversized scythe is the tool he uses to harvest souls, similar to how farmers harvest plants with a scythe. Death wielding his scythe through a swarm of humanity, mowing down souls like grain, was depicted in several paintings. The Grim Reaper was occasionally depicted with an hourglass, which could be interpreted as implying that the dead person whose soul the Grim Reaper is harvesting has "run out of time."